Theresa May announces Queen’s Speech will take place on Wednesday as Sinn Fein says the Tories are breaking the Good Friday Agreement
State Opening of Parliament pushed back by two days - throwing Queen’s Royal Ascot plans into chaos
THERESA May has called Arlene Foster's bluff after the Queen's Speech was scheduled for next Wednesday without a Tory-DUP deal being agreed.
A senior Tory source said talks with the Northern Irish party “have been progressing well” and they expect their 10 MPs to help prop up the Prime Minister’s ailing government.
But this means the State Opening of Parliament has been pushed back by two days - throwing her Majesty’s Royal Ascot plans into chaos.
And Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams cast further doubt on the Tory-DUP talks by saying that they are a violation of the Good Friday Agreement which guarantees peace in Northern Ireland.
Speaking in Downing Street, he said: "We have just finished a meeting with the British prime minister and her secretary of state and we told her very directly that she was in breach of the Good Friday Agreement."
The agreement states that the British Government must remain neutral in all talks on the future of Northern Ireland.
A statement from Andrea Leadsom, the Leader of the House of Commons, confirmed the new date for the Queen's Speech in a statement today.
Originally scheduled for Monday, June 19, the instability created by last week’s election result meant it had to be postponed after the Prime Minister lost her overall majority.
The Tories have been trying to get an agreement for the 10 DUP MPs to vote with them and allow their legislative programme for the coming year to be passed.
Talks are on-going today, and the fact a date for the Queen’s Speech was announced made it seem likely an agreement is close to being finalised.
But a source in the Conservatives confirmed said no official partnership had been signed.
They said however they were "confident there'll be sufficient support across the House for the Queen’s Speech", putting pressure on the DUP to vote with them next week or risk allowing Jeremy Corbyn to try and form his own Government.
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The new plan will also disrupt her Majesty’s schedule – as she is set to attend the prestigious Royal Ascot horse racing meeting from Tuesday to Friday.
Buckingham Palace confirmed the monarch will still go to the track after she has finished her duties on Parliament - but seems likely to miss the royal carriage procession in the morning.
One potential upside of the alteration date for the Government is that it will no longer clash with the date when Brexit negotiations were due to begin in Brussels.
It is not yet clear whether the EU withdrawal talks will go ahead on June 19 though, after Brexit Secretary David Davis said they will start "next week".
Mrs May is also holding talks today with the other Northern Ireland political parties amid warnings the expected deal will undermine the peace process.
She was meeting separately with representatives of Sinn Fein, the Ulster Unionists, the SDLP and the Alliance Party, as well as the DUP, in Downing Street in an attempt to allay growing concerns.
It follows warnings, including from former PM Sir John Major, that the Government will compromise its stated impartiality in the province if it enters a confidence and supply deal with the DUP at Westminster.
The nationalist Sinn Fein and SDLP and the cross-community Alliance have all made clear Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire cannot chair the process to restore power-sharing at Stormont due to the perceived conflict of interest.
The 1998 Good Friday Agreement, also referred to as the Belfast Agreement, commits the UK and Irish Governments to demonstrate "rigorous impartiality" in their dealings with the different political traditions in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Fein's Stormont leader Michelle O'Neill said: "I will be making it very clear that any deal between the Tories and the DUP cannot be allowed to undermine the Good Friday and subsequent agreements."
