Theresa May fails to get DUP backing for her Brexit deal

The DUP - which has 10 MPs in the Commons propping up May's Government - has confirmed it will be backing a different Brexit deal.

Another day, another crushing blow for Theresa May’s Brexit deal.

The Democratic Unionist Party – which has 10 MPs in the Commons propping up May’s Government – has once again said it won’t be backing the Prime Minister’s withdrawal agreement.

Instead, DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds has announced his party will be backing an alternative deal, giving little hope to the PM ever being able to bring her plan back for a third meaningful vote.

Dodds posted a picture to Twitter of the ‘Malthouse compromise plan A’, which would replace the Irish backstop with an arrangement based around a zero-tariff free trade agreement, and said: ‘We will be supporting this way forward in the vote later today.’

Yesterday the Northern Irish party said it still wasn’t prepared to support the ‘toxic’ deal and this morning a spokesman for the party said ‘nothing has changed’.

The DUP’s only member of the European Parliament also told MEPs in Strasbourg that it will not accept the PM’s current Brexit proposal as it would ‘endanger the integrity of the United Kingdom’.

Diane Dodds told the EU Parliament: ‘It is not a price that we as Unionists are willing to pay.’

Brexiteer Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg earlier gave May hope by saying he would back her Brexit deal – but only if it was supported by the DUP.

Rees-Mogg, who has sought a complete break from the European Union, said May’s deal is still a bad one, but ‘the risk is, if I don’t back it, we don’t leave the EU at all’.

‘I think we have got to the point where legally leaving is better than not leaving at all,’ he told the BBC. ‘Half a loaf is better than no bread.’

Meanwhile, Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski urged DUP MPs to abstain over Withdrawal Agreement if they cannot support it, rather than vote against.

We will be supporting this way forward in the vote later today pic.twitter.com/F4YKywAJfY

— Nigel Dodds (@NigelDoddsDUP) March 27, 2019

‘That way we could still just about get it across finishing line,’ he tweeted.

‘We must prevent Remainer Parliament from destroying #Brexit.’

This evening’s indicative votes are likely to produce conflicting and inconclusive results, but could push Britain in the direction of a softer Brexit that keeps Britain closely tied to the EU.

That means the UK is likely to seek a longer Brexit delay and would need to take part in European Parliament elections in May.

Many EU officials are keen to avoid the messy participation of a departing member state.

But the chief of the European Council told European lawmakers that the EU should let Britain take part.

What are MPs voting on tonight and which Brexit options will be chosen?

Donald Tusk said the bloc could not ‘betray’ the millions of Brits who want to stay in the EU.

‘They may feel they are not sufficiently represented by the U.K. Parliament but they must feel that are represented by you in this chamber. Because they are Europeans,’ Tusk said this morning.

Labour has said it is supporting a motion demanding a second referendum.

Labour MPs are to be whipped to support the motion tabled in the name of Dame Margaret Beckett, for a second vote on any Brexit deal passed by Parliament before its ratification.

A party spokesman said: ‘In line with our policy, we’re supporting motions to keep options on the table to prevent a bad Tory deal or no deal.’