Why the DUP should reconsider their opposition to Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal

For the third time, the UK government finds itself at odds with its allies, Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party. The DUP chose to vote against Boris Johnson’s deal on Saturday by supporting the Letwin amendment. They will surely do so again when the meaningful vote is finally taken this week.

But this time there is less DUP animus against the government because relations between the DUP parliamentary group and the PM have been generally good. The Prime Minister spoke at last year’s DUP annual conference and was well received. Even though his promises at that conference are regarded by the DUP as having been broken, there can be no doubt of the strength of Boris’s Johnson’s sincere unionism. He has also consulted the DUP at every turn, ably assisted by his foreign policy advisers.

There has been no repeat of the farcical situation of December 2017 when Theresa May agreed with Brussels a first draft of her withdrawal proposals but gave no sight of the document to the DUP allies on which her government depended.