The party which props up Theresa May’s minority government has described her handling of Brexit as “disorganised and slapdash”, after she asked the EU for another delay.
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster said the prime minister’s request for an Article 50 extension was “unsurprising but unsatisfactory”.
The Northern Irish party props up May’s government in a ‘confidence and supply’ arrangement, after the PM squandered the Tories’ majority in the 2017 snap election. However the government’s relationship with the DUP has been fraying since the UK and EU agreed a draft Brexit deal.
The DUP feels the Irish border backstop element cuts off Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, and has accused May of going back on her promise not to draw a de facto border down the Irish Sea.
The Northern Irish party has refused to vote for the PM’s deal and Foster’s latest salvo raises questions about the long-term viability of the government if it manages to pass the withdrawal agreement.
After May asked the EU for a flexible Brexit delay to June 30, Foster said: “It should not have been like this.
“Exiting the EU has become chaotic because of intransigence in Brussels and ineffectiveness in London.
“The United Kingdom fighting European elections almost three years after a clear majority voted to leave the EU sums up the disorganised and slapdash approach taken to negotiations by the prime minister.”
Foster also criticised May’s decision to pivot away from trying to get her deal through the Commons on Tory and DUP votes, and instead turning to Labour.
The PM should not be “subcontracting the UK’s future to Jeremy Corbyn” by going into talks with the Labour leader, Foster said
The DUP leader went on said: “We want a sensible deal which protects the Union and respects the referendum result but it was foolish strategically in the negotiations to limit the UK’s leverage by removing ‘no deal’ from the table.
“The prime minister should not waste any extension by subcontracting the UK’s future to Jeremy Corbyn. This time should be used to get a better deal which works for every part of the United Kingdom so the entire nation can leave the European Union together.”