Theresa May’s premiership in peril as loose alliance agreed with DUP – The Guardian

Theresa May pictured with her new chief of staff, Gavin Barwell, in summer 2016. Photograph: Neil Hall/PA

An increasingly desperate Theresa May has been forced to agree a loose alliance with the Democratic Unionists to prop up her government after angry Tory MPs warned they would object to a formal coalition with the party.

Downing Street said that a confidence and supply arrangement had been reached with the DUP and would be put to the cabinet on Monday, as May attempts to rescue her premiership.

The move came late on Saturday after Tory MPs had begun warning party whips they would oppose any formal deal, because of the DUPs position on gay rights, abortion and climate change. The looser deal on offer would see the Northern Irish partys 10 MPs support her in key votes, but not enter a closer pact with the Tories.

The decision to rule out a formal pact, which could make it harder for May to govern, comes after her trusted joint chiefs of staff, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, resigned following her shock failure to secure a majority in Thursdays general election.

May had been under pressure from ministers to sack the pair or face an immediate leadership challenge. Gavin Barwell, who lost his Croydon Central seat, has taken up the role of chief of staff.

May is under huge strain to keep the job she won less than a year ago. As the poor election result emerged, senior Tories are understood to have contacted Boris Johnson to sound him out about launching another leadership bid should May be unable to continue.

Friends of the foreign secretary dismissed any suggestion that he would try to force May out, stating that he was backing her decision to stay in post. It is nonsense to suggest he is manoeuvering, they said.

A No 10 spokesman said: We can confirm that the Democratic Unionist Party have agreed to the principles of an outline agreement to support the Conservative government on a confidence and supply basis when parliament returns next week.

We welcome this commitment, which can provide the stability and certainty the whole country requires as we embark on Brexit and beyond.

The Observer has learned that the DUP was planning to dodge a row when negotiations began by avoiding the inclusion of any controversial social policies, such as opposition to gay marriage or abortion, in its so-called shopping list of demands to the Tories. Party sources said it would be seeking commitments from May that there would be no Irish unity referendum and no hard border imposed on the island of Ireland. However, some Tories remained concerned that a pact would damage a brand they have spent years trying to detoxify.

More and more colleagues are becoming distinctly uneasy about the idea of a formal pact with the DUP, said one senior Conservative. It is up to the DUP if they want to support a Conservative government and vote for various measures that we put through, but there is a feeling that we are damaged if we are seen to be entering into a formal agreement with a party whose views on a number of things we just dont share.

Why should we damage what we painstakingly built up through David Camerons work on personal issues, and indeed what the prime ministers own instincts are, with any form of formal linkage with people who plainly have some views that the vast majority of Conservative MPs would not share?

Nicky Morgan, an education secretary under Cameron, said: As a former minister for women and equalities, any notion that the price for a deal with the DUP is to water down our equalities policies is a non-starter.

An online petition calling for May to resign rather than form a coalition with the DUP had attracted more than 600,000 signatures on Saturday night.

The DUP, which won 10 seats and holds the balance of power, is opposed to abortion and same-sex marriage. It has also appointed climate change sceptics to senior party posts. The former Tory cabinet minister Owen Paterson sparked alarm by suggesting his party may have to enter into a debate on further reduction of abortion times as medical science advances. But it is understood the DUP will argue that controversial issues like gay marriage and abortion can be dealt with only in a Northern Ireland context by the Stormont assembly.

Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, expressed concern at the weekend over the impact of a DUP deal on gay rights and other issues.

But one DUP source said: Someone is stirring the pot with Ruth, who we regard as a hero of the union.

The DUP has been at the forefront of opposition in Stormont to legalising gay marriage and reforming the near-total ban on abortion in the region. Seeking a soft border would raise the question of whether or not the DUP backs the UK staying in the EUs customs union.

The party will also insist that there are no checks at English, Scottish or Welsh ports and airports on any citizens travelling from Northern Ireland after Brexit.

DUP sources said the list of demands would be similar to its 2015 Northern Ireland plan, when the party laid out its price for supporting either a minority Tory or Labour administration. That included demands for more Treasury cash for Northern Irelands schools and hospitals. Also among the DUPs shopping list will be at least a 50% cut or the total abolition of air passenger duty in Northern Ireland.

Discussions between the DUP and the Conservatives will run parallel with negotiations this week involving all the main parties in Northern Ireland. The latter talks are aimed at restoring the power-sharing devolved government in Belfast. Writing in Sundays Observer, Jonathan Powell, Tony Blairs secret negotiator with the IRA leadership after the 1998 Good Friday agreement, said a Conservative-DUP deal would have dire consequences for the talks on Monday.

If Mrs May depends on the DUP Ian Paisleys party, not the old Official Unionists who used to work with the Tories to form a government it will be impossible for it to be even-handed, Powell said.

The rest is here:

Theresa May's premiership in peril as loose alliance agreed with DUP - The Guardian