Defiant DUP leader warns PM not to sell Northern Ireland short in an ‘unwise’ deal

Defiant DUP leader warns PM not to sell Northern Ireland short in an ‘unwise’ deal BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Arlene Foster has told Prime Minister Theresa May to focus on getting the right Brexit deal from Europe. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/defiant-dup-leader-warns-pm-not-to-sell-northern-ireland-short-in-an-unwise-deal-37513071.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/article37513068.ece/ff913/AUTOCROP/h342/2018-11-10_new_45620732_I2.JPG Email Arlene Foster has told Prime Minister Theresa May to focus on getting the right Brexit deal from Europe. In a defiant message, the DUP leader warned against being pressured into accepting an unwise agreement which sold Northern Ireland short. Writing in today’s Belfast Telegraph, Mrs Foster repeats that she will not accept an Irish Sea border which “annexes” the region from the rest of the UK. She said “many others” in Westminster and beyond supported her concerns. It came after the DUP accused Mrs May of breaking promises over plans to avoid a hard border. They were responding to a letter from the PM which the DUP interpreted to mean that she was planning a Brexit deal which could mean Northern Ireland becoming separated from the rest of the UK by a trade border in the Irish Sea. In a day of dramatic developments: The fragile alliance keeping Mrs May in power grew more strained as senior DUP figures railed against Mrs May’s latest bid to break the deadlock; Downing Street reiterated the PM’s commitment to avoiding a hard border; Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle O’Neill, writing in this newspaper, said the EU’s proposed backstop insurance policy remained “the bottom line” to prevent a hard border; Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he believes a… [Read full story]