Where Does Brexit Go From Here?
NY TIMES
[A small but influential party aligned with Prime Minister Theresa May’s government suggested on Friday that it still cannot support her plan for Britain to leave the European Union, a development that could doom her hopes of persuading Parliament to pass the deal next week on the third try.
The Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland holds just 10 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, but the central sticking point in the talks on a British withdrawal has been how to handle the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, and the party’s position carries disproportionate weight with others in Parliament.
Parliament has twice rejected the agreement that Mrs. May negotiated with the European Union for Britain’s departure, known as Brexit, and both times the D.U.P. has voted against it, largely because of concerns about the border issue.
The party and many others who support a withdrawal contend that the deal could leave Britain trapped, by making it subject to some European Union economic rules indefinitely. And by treating Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the nation, they say, the deal risks splitting the United Kingdom apart.
“Nothing has changed as far as the Withdrawal Agreement is concerned,” Nigel Dodds, the leader of the party’s caucus in Parliament, said in a statement posted online. “We will not accept any deal which poses a long-term risk to the constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom.”
We have been very clear that we want a deal which delivers on the referendum result and which works for all parts of the U.K. and for the EU.
But it must be a deal that protects the Union. That remains our abiding principle. 2/2
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Mrs. May has planned to try for a third vote in Parliament, but she would need to win the votes of about 70 members. That was considered a tall order even before Mr. Dodds’s message.