Boris Johnson called on Theresa May to “junk the backstop” in a barnstorming speech at the Democratic Unionist party conference.
The former foreign secretaryJohnson told the party’s conference in Belfast on Saturday that the backstop, a measure intended to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, would cleave Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom.
“If you read the withdrawal agreement you can see that we are witnessing the birth of a new country called Ukni,” he said. “Ukni is no longer exclusively ruled by London or Stormont. Ukni is in large part to be ruled by Brussels.”
Johnson sought to steel DUP resistance to the deal and to parry Downing Street’s attempt to woo the party’s 10 Westminster MPs, who could determine the fate of the deal in a vote next month.
“We need to junk the backstop,” he said, in a speech which heaped praise on his hosts as guardians of British identity.
The Brexiter’s visit to Belfast piled additional pressure on May. The prime minister travelled to Brussels for talks with the presidents of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the European council, Donald Tusk, before a summit of EU leaders on Sunday.
The DUP, which shores up May’s government with a confidence-and-supply agreement, reiterated its insistence that May renegotiate the Brexit deal.
In a defiant address Nigel Dodds, the party’s deputy leader, called the deal “pitiful and pathetic” and said: “Prime minister – bin the backstop.”
“It is still not too late for the prime minister to change course,” said Dodds, who leads the DUP in Westminster. “It requires strong leadership to stand up to Brussels bullying.”
The deal, which the House of Commons is due to vote on next month, would undermine Northern Ireland’s position in the United Kingdom by imposing a border down the Irish Sea and leaving Northern Ireland subject to EU laws, he said.
The uncompromising language was a rebuke to the chancellor, Philip Hammond, who tried to sell the deal to DUP leaders in a gathering in Belfast on Friday night.
Hammond argued that the backstop, an insurance policy, would not be used and that rejecting the deal would inflict severe economic pain and possibly lead to an election and a Labour government with Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister, according to one source who attended the gathering.
The arguments appeared to leave Dodds, a fervent Brexiter, unmoved. His speech urged all those who cherished “our precious union to stand firm in the face of the inevitable onslaught”.
The backstop violated the confidence-and-supply agreement, therefore the DUP had inflicted “consequences”, said Dodds, referring to its recent Westminster votes against the government.
“Let it be said when the history books are written about these times that it was the Democratic Unionist party who stood strong for Northern Ireland and who stood strong for the great union we cherish,” said the deputy leader.
Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, was expected to issue an equally blunt message to Downing Street in her speech. She made clear the was not softening its position in an interview on Friday night, saying that if May succeeded in steering the deal through parliament “then of course we will have to revisit the confidence-and-supply agreement”.
Comments