Theresa May and Arlene Foster have still not spoken to hammer out an agreed position on the Brexit talks, it emerged today.
Despite the Prime Minister having just days to patch up an agreement that paves the way for trade talks, she has still not been able to speak directly to the DUP leader.
Downing Street was this morning unable to say when the call would take place. The DUP said there were ‘no plans today’.
Mrs Foster signalled last night there will be no quick fix to the crisis which has engulfed the Brexit talks since she told Mrs May her draft deal – that apparently promised Northern Ireland would match EU rules after Brexit, separately from Britain – was unacceptable on Monday.
Tory chief whip Julian Smith and DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds have been tasked with agreeing a UK position on the UK-Ireland border.
Mrs May must then find a way to ensure that agreement is acceptable in Brussels and Dublin. A deal must be done by the end of the week to avoid further delay.
The impasse is also making Tory Brexiteers uneasy and could encourage them to demand Mrs May abandons negotiations with the EU altogether.
DUP leader Arlene Foster (pictured in Belfast tonight) refused to back down in a row over Brexit tonight insisting she was just as ‘unequivocal’ as Dublin about the terms of the Irish border.
The Prime Minister (pictured in Downing Street today) is scrambling to get negotiations with the EU back on track after an humiliating day in Brussels
DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds defended his party’s decision to torpedo the deal Theresa May had painstakingly assembled in the EU yesterday
Mrs May and Mrs Foster had been due to speak by telephone last night but the call was postponed amid continued division.
Irish Premier Leo Varadkar has claimed Mrs May was ready to sign before the DUP intervention and insisted the contested language was drafted by Britain.
The DUP leader told Irish broadcaster RTE that it was a ‘big shock’ when the document was finally handed on Monday over after five weeks of the party demanding to see what was on the table.
She blamed Dublin for stopping the Tories sharing the details earlier.
Speaking in Belfast last night, Mrs Foster warned she was in no mood to give in to Mr Varadkar’s demands, insisting: ‘He can be as unequivocal as he likes. We’re equally unequivocal.’
In a round of interviews, Mrs Foster said: ‘We hadn’t seen any text, despite asking for text for nearly five weeks now, we haven’t been in receipt of any text and the text only came through to us late yesterday morning.
‘And obviously once we saw the text we knew it wasn’t going to be acceptable.’
She told Sky News: ‘We realised that in no way could we sign up to that text because essentially it was making a red line down the Irish Sea.’
Summoned to answer questions in the Commons, Brexit Secretary David Davis (pictured at the Despatch Box this afternoon) dismissed claims the government was putting the union at risk or that the ‘DUP tail was wagging the government dog’
In the Commons today (pictured) Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg (left) revealed his ‘gratitude to the DUP for helping the government stick to its own red lines’ while DUP Westminster chief Nigel Dodds said it would take time to undo the ‘damage’ caused by the aggressive Irish government
The Government in Westminster has scrambled yesterday to insist any arrangement for Northern Ireland will be matched across the UK, meaning in some areas rules after Brexit will still follow EU terms.
Brexit Secretary David Davis flatly denied that the government was prepared to sign up to terms that would risk Northern Ireland’s future, vowing that the ‘integrity of the UK comes first’.
But he risked Eurosceptic fury by giving the clearest sign yet that all of Britain would ‘align’ with EU rules in crucial areas such as agriculture, energy and transport in order to secure a close relationship with the bloc.
The comments quickly triggered gloating from Eurocrats that Mr Davis had effectively agreed to ‘make the UK kind of a regulatory protectorate of Brussels’.
Tory Eurosceptics hailed the DUP move for having ‘saved Brexit’ and urged a tougher line against Irish demands over the border.
But Labour said it showed the ‘DUP tail was wagging the government dog’ as Mrs May depends on their 10 MPs to cling to power.
Senior Brexiteers thanked the DUP leader for standing up to Dublin, which selectively leaked parts of the agreement prompting suggesting Northern Ireland would effectively be left behind after Brexit following EU rules.
Jacob Rees-Mogg revealed his ‘gratitude to the DUP for helping the government stick to its own red lines’, tweeting that the party had ‘saved Brexit’.
Mr Dodds (pictured centre with his DUP MPs today) confirmed he and party leader Arlene Foster only saw a draft of Theresa May’s deal late yesterday morning and declared the ‘ambiguous’ wording was immediately unacceptable
Former cabinet minister Owen Paterson telling Mr Davis: ‘We are going to leave the single market and the customs union.
‘Will he confirm that this week the integrity of the United Kingdom comes first and, if necessary, no deal is better than a bad deal?’
Mr Davis said Mr Paterson had made his point ‘well’ and he had already confirmed the ‘integrity’ of the UK comes first.
Mr Dodds used the Commons debate to lash the Irish government for its ‘aggressive and anti-unionist’ behaviour and warned the leaks from Dublin which triggered the breakdown had caused ‘damage’ that ‘is going to take a long time to repair’.
During the urgent question (pictured), Mr Davis faced repeated calls from Remain-backing MPs for the Uk to stay inside the single market after Brexit