Small Northern Irish party plays big role in Brexit talks

In this April 11, 2019, file photo, Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster, centre, speaks to journalists at EU headquarters, in Brussels.The Democratic Unionist Party is a small Northern Irish political grouping with an outsized Brexit role.

Johnson’s Conservative Party does not have a working majority in Parliament. As well as getting those 10 votes, DUP support for any Brexit deal would unlock hard-line Brexit supporters within the Conservative Party, many of whom have said they will be influenced by what the Northern Irish party thinks.Little wonder then, that the party is being courted intensely by Johnson. As things stand, it’s not clear whether the party will support any deal that emerges.

DUP leader Arlene Foster was Northern Ireland’s first minister until the government collapsed in January 2017 over a botched green-energy project. The rift soon widened to broader cultural and political issues separating Northern Ireland’s British unionists and Irish nationalists, and power-sharing has yet to be restored.The DUP has just 10 seats in Britain’s 650-seat Parliament.

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