General Election latest: Theresa May strikes deal with DUP to form minority Government
88 Comments
General election 2017: how the night unfolded
Hung parliament confirmed after 'no Tory majority
9 JUNE 2017 • 11:07AM
Theresa May will ask the Queen for permission to form a minority Government when she visits Buckingham Palace at 12.30pm, Downing Street has said.
The Prime Minister is refusing to quit despite her disastrous election night as the UK voted for a hung parliament.
Mrs May is believed to have struck a deal, but not a formal coalition agreement, with the Democratic Unionist Party which will narrowly give her the numbers she needs to pass legislation in the House of Commons.
Mrs May’s decision to call a snap election backfired in spectacular fashion as she lost the Conservatives’ majority as Labour made significant gains.
Mrs May is now scrambling to try and form a government and the DUP has signalled a willingness to do a deal even though the party's leader Arlene Foster has expressed doubts that the Prime Minister can "survive".
Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has urged Mrs May to resign as he said she should "go and make way for a government that is truly representative of this country".
He also claimed it is "pretty clear who won this election" and that "the party that has lost in this election is the Conservative Party".
Meanwhile, even senior Tory figures have suggested she should consider her position.
But Tory sources have told The Telegraph that Mrs May will stay on as Prime Minister because she does not want to allow Brussels to delay Brexit talks.
One source said: "The digging in seems to have something to do with their not wanting to allow Brussels to postpone the Brexit talks on the claimed pretence that 'there isn't a UK Government'."
Mrs May insisted the UK needed a period of stability as she delivered a speech following her re-election as the MP for Maidenhead.
Theresa May wins in Maidenhead - speech in full
11:07am
Senior Tory MP Sarah Wollaston attacks Theresa May's 'negative campaign'
10:57am
Theresa May warned by Tory ministers she will face leadership challenge if Brexit watered down
Theresa May, the Prime Minister, waits for the results to be declared in her Maidenhead constituency CREDIT: GEOFF CADDICK/AFP
The Prime Minister will today attempt to form a minority Government with the Democratic Unionist Party, which has repeatedly voiced opposition to a hard Brexit.
But senior Conservatives have told The Telegraph that Mrs May is "on notice" and must prove she can resist pressure from Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP to compromise over Brexit.
You can read the full story here.
10:54am
Could Nigel Farage return as Ukip leader? 
10:52am
Video: Paul Nuttall resigns as Ukip leader
Paul Nuttall resigns as Ukip leader
10:48am
DUP source: No deal yet but one is likely
A DUP source tells The Telegraph's chief political correspondent Christopher Hope: "The two parties have worked well together for two years. There's no reason to suppose they won't continue to do so in future."
On the prospect of working with Labour, the source says: "But the point made time after time to Labour MPs remains: for as long as you allow yourselves to be led by an IRA cheerleader, you exclude yourselves from entering Number 10
Read more:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...may-talks-dup-coalition/#update-20170609-0950
Theresa May reaches deal with DUP to form government after shock election result
May expected to visit Queen to seek permission to form government after agreeing terms with Northern Ireland party
Rajeev Syal in London and
Henry McDonaldin Belfast
Friday 9 June 2017 10.35 BSTFirst published on Friday 9 June 2017 10.20 BST
Theresa May has struck a deal with the Democratic Unionists that will allow her to form a government, sources have confirmed.
The prime minister is expected to see the Queen at about 12.30pm on Friday to confirm that a deal is in place.
It follows extensive talks with the DUP late into the night. Party figures say they have been driven on Friday morning by their dismay at the possibility of
Jeremy Corbynbecoming prime minister.
DUP figures insist their relationship with May’s team has been close since she became prime minister 11 months ago.
A DUP source said: “We want there to be a government. We have worked well with May. The alternative is intolerable. For as long as Corbyn leads
Labour, we will ensure there’s a Tory PM.”
There has been no decision as yet on whether there will be a formal coalition between the
Conservatives and the DUP or if they will operate on a “confidence and supply” arrangement – whereby the Unionists would support a minority government on vital matters in return for some of their policies being enacted.
“There is no absolute majority, so no danger from the combined opposition,” a source said. It has been reported that the two parties do not believe it necessary to enter a formal coalition to govern.
The DUP’s ‘price’ for propping up a new Tory government will include a promise that there would be no post-Brexit special status for
Northern Ireland, the party’s leader in Westminster has confirmed.
Nigel Dodds, re-elected as North Belfast MP, said that among the DUP’s preconditions would be an insistence that there was no separate deal that would effectively keep the region with one foot still inside the EU.
The DUP fears that special status after Brexit – a key demand of Sinn Féin – would de-couple Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
The party will return to the House of Commons with 10 seats and in all likelihood will only support a Tory administration, Dodds said.
With one eye on the Brexit negotiations that begin within the next 10 to 11 days, Dodds said: “There are special circumstances in Northern Ireland and we will try to make sure these are recognised. As regards demands for special status within the
European Union, no. Because that would create tariffs and barriers between Northern Ireland and our single biggest market, which is the rest of the United Kingdom.
“While we will focus on the special circumstances, geography and certain industries of Northern Ireland we will be pressing that home very strongly. Special status, however, within the European Union is a nonsense. Dublin doesn’t support it. Brussels doesn’t support it. The member states of the EU would never dream of it because it would open the door to a Pandora’s box of independence movements of all sorts. The only people who mentioned this are Sinn Féin.”
The DUP backed Brexit in last year’s EU referendum campaign and regards as sacrosanct the overall UK decision to leave.
Sinn Féin have argued that because the Northern Ireland electorate voted by 56% to remain within Europe last year and that the region will be the only one with a post-Brexit land border with the EU, the area should have special designated status.
When asked about what form of deal the DUP would consider, Dodds ruled out taking ministerial seats in a new Conservative-led cabinet. Rather the DUP is likely to back the Tories in confidence motions and support Conservative budgets.
“No, I am not thinking in those terms I have to say,” Dodds said when asked about taking a cabinet seat before joking that he would like to be secretary of state for Northern Ireland.
The North Belfast MP said that “under no circumstances” would the DUP support any alternative coalition led by Jeremy Corbyn given what Dodds called the Labour leader’s record of being pro-Irish republican in the past.
Sinn Féin were the other major winners in the local general election battle, winning seven seats and effectively wiping out their nationalist rivals the SDLP, who lost all three of their Westminster seats.
However, Corbyn will be unable to rely on the support of the seven Sinn Féin MPs as the party will continue its historic policy of boycotting Westminster.
Late on Thursday night, Gerry Adams, the Sinn Féin president, said his MPs would not be going to the House of Commons.
A senior Sinn Féin spokesman later told The Guardian there “wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell” of the party ditching its abstentionism regarding Westminster
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...-after-shock-election-result-northern-ireland
