Under pressure to soften Brexit, PM May
to meet Northern Irish 'kingmakers'
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[June 13, 2017]
By Michael Holden and Kylie MacLellan
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa
May will seek to strike a deal with a Northern Irish Protestant party to
save her premiership on Tuesday as she comes under intense pressure to
soften her approach to Brexit days before formal EU divorce talks.
May's botched election gamble, which saw her lose her parliamentary
majority, left her so diminished that supporters of closer ties with the
European Union publicly demanded she take a more consensual and business
friendly approach to Brexit.
In an attempt to avoid a second election that could deepen the worst
political turmoil in Britain since last June's shock vote to leave the
European Union, May apologized to her Conservative Party's lawmakers,
who said they would leave her in power - for now.
"She said: 'I'm the person who got us into this mess and I'm the one who
is going to get us out of it'," said one Conservative lawmaker who
attended Monday's meeting. "She said she will serve us as long as we
want her."
To stay in government, May must strike a deal with the Democratic
Unionist Party (DUP), a small eurosceptic Northern Irish party with 10
parliamentary seats. May will meet DUP leader Arlene Foster in London on
Tuesday.
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"The deal will be done," said Jon Tonge, professor of politics at
Liverpool University. "Basically it will be Theresa May signing cheques
for the foreseeable future or a monthly direct debit, as it were, into
Northern Ireland's coffers."
"The DUP may never have the political arithmetic so favorable again so
like the Conservatives, the DUP will want to avoid another election and
will want to keep drinking in the political free bar that is available
to it," Tonge said.
But a deal with the DUP would risk destabilizing the political balance
in Northern Ireland by increasing the influence of pro-British unionists
who have struggled for years with Irish Catholic nationalists who want
Northern Ireland to join a united Ireland.
While the DUP are deeply eurosceptic, they have balked at some of the
practical implications of a so-call hard Brexit - including a potential
loss of a "frictionless border" with the Republic of Ireland - and talks
will touch on efforts to minimize the potential damage to Northern
Ireland.
With formal EU divorce talks due next week, May heads to France on
Tuesday to meet Emmanuel Macron, who last month swept to victory in the
presidential election.
During the campaign, May cast herself as the only leader competent
enough to navigate the tortuous Brexit negotiations that will shape the
future of the United Kingdom and its $2.5 trillion economy.
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, which saw its
number of parliamentary seats and share of the vote increase, said there
could be another election this year or early in 2018 after Thursday's
vote produced no clear winner.
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![](../images/061317pics/news_r29.jpg)
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Phillip (R)
arrive at church in Sonning, Britain May 28, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall
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BREXIT CIVIL WAR?
May, who ahead of the June referendum supported remaining in the EU,
has promised to start the formal Brexit talks next week but
opponents of a sharp break with the EU took her woes as a chance to
push back against her strategy.
Before the election, May proposed a clean break from the EU,
involving withdrawal from Europe's single market, limits on
immigration and a bespoke customs deal with the EU.
Brexit minister David Davis has insisted the approach to the EU
divorce had not changed, but at the meeting with lawmakers on
Monday, May recognized that a broader consensus needed to be built
for Brexit and made clear she would listen to all wings of the party
on the issue.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said the government
should put economic growth at the heart of its Brexit strategy,
while some senior ministers have pushed for less focus on
immigration and more on jobs.
The Daily Telegraph reported cabinet ministers have opened
back-channel talks to senior Labour lawmakers to secure a
cross-party agreement on Brexit. When asked about the Daily
Telegraph article, Michael Gove, a minister who campaigned for
Brexit, told ITV: "This is news to me."
William Hague, a former leader of the Conservative Party, called for
business groups and lawmakers from all parties to be brought in to
agree a national position on Brexit.
May's weakness means she must now listen to all shades of opinion on
Brexit as she goes into Britain's most complex negotiations since
World War Two.
But May faces a difficult balancing act: Divisions over Europe
helped sink the premierships of Margaret Thatcher, John Major and
David Cameron, and many of her lawmakers and party membership
support a sharp break with the EU.
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"The Tory civil war on the EU which has ripped it apart since the
Maastricht rebellions of the early 1990s, and which the referendum
was supposed to solve, is now raging again," said Chris Grey, an
academic who specializes in Brexit at Royal Holloway in London.
(Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Janet Lawrence)
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