DUP will back Theresa May’s ‘Plan B’ Brexit plan if she secures a time-limit for the Irish backstop
THERESA May’s hopes of a Brexit breakthrough were boosted last night after the DUP said it would back her deal if she wins a time-limit to the hated backstop.
DUP Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson said the price of his party’s support would be changing the Withdrawal Agreement to insert a legally binding end date to the mechanism.
It comes 24 hours after Poland became the first EU member state to back the idea of limiting the backstop - suggesting a five-year deadline.
In a significant softening of their position until now, a string of Tory rebels also signalled they would back an amendment tabled by Tory MP Andrew Murrison last night that demands a sunset clause to the backstop.
And they said a “growing consensus” of Eurosceptics were now ready to back the PM’s deal to stop “kamikaze” pro-EU MPs blocking Brexit altogether.
Asked if Tory rebels were closer to backing the PM’s Brexit deal, Mr Murrison said: “Yes I think there’s a softening in people’s attitude to this. They are concerned that Brexit may not happen at all because of the machinations of hardcore Remainers that has focused minds.”
Mr Wilson’s comments mark a softening of the DUP’s position on the backstop after previously demanding it be removed from the Withdrawal altogether.
I don’t think a time limit would be enough. An end date would not remove the problems relating to Northern Ireland.
Jacob Rees-Mogg MP
The unionist party has opposed the backstop because it would mean Northern Ireland is treated differently than the rest of the UK - effectively putting a border down the Irish Sea.
And it signals a split with the hardline Brexiteer ERG group of around 60 Tory MPs, who last night said that inserting an end date in the Withdrawal Agreement would still not be enough to win over their support.
Spelling out the changes needed to win the DUP’s support, Mr Wilson told The Sun: “If the Government says ‘we have got the Withdrawal Agreement changed, we now have a time-limit, that time limit is a legal guarantee which when we reach December 2021 - or whenever it happens to be - the backstop will no longer apply and nobody can change that, it won’t require anybody else’s consent to be applied, then yes - that would be something that we would certainly be prepared to look at.”
But ERG chief Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “I don’t think a time limit would be enough. An end date would not remove the problems relating to Northern Ireland.”
Mr Murrison’s amendment was last night gathering momentum among Tory MPs amid speculation that No10 could back the plan and demand the EU reopens the Withdrawal Agreement.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said No10 would “wait to see if it’s selected” by Speaker John Bercow in Tuesday’s crunch Brexit votes.
The spokesman said: “If the PM’s discussions with colleagues mean having a new discussion with the EU, that’s what we’ll do.”
In a sign other Tory rebels are ready to climb down and back the PM’s deal, Ms Dorries told BBC Newsnight: “I can feel a growing consensus among a number of MPs who in the light of being faced with these Europhile, kamikaze MPs who really don’t care about their careers going up in flames, who want to overturn
parliamentary tradition.
“I think many people are now realising - that we would now support this deal to get it over the line because every day here is a dangerous day at the moment. We may have to see that this is a deal we will have to swallow our pride, swallow what we’d prefer and vote for it.”
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