Conservative–DUP agreement
Relations between the Conservatives and UUP worsened following the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985,[3] although the two parties continued to work together, especially after the 1992 election when John Major's government had to rely on their support.
[8] In October 2014, it was reported by the Financial Times that informal discussions were taking place between the Conservatives and the DUP ahead of the 2015 general election, which was widely expected to result in a hung parliament.
[17] James Brokenshire, the Conservative Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, was set to attend a DUP fundraiser on 27 October 2016, but later backed out due to the controversy that arose from this.
The DUP, which won 10 seats in the election (its best Westminster electoral performance to date), suggested it would be able to provide a coalition or confidence-and-supply arrangement depending on negotiations.
[20] Theresa May, incumbent Conservative prime minister, announced her intention on 9 June 2017 to form a new minority government with support from the DUP, whom she described as "friends and allies".
[21] Initially, both parties implied that this support would be in the form of a confidence-and-supply agreement, with the DUP backing a Conservative Queen's Speech and certain other elements of the government's legislative agenda.
[28] On the afternoon of 13 June, Arlene Foster, the DUP leader who had travelled to London for negotiations with May, stated that discussions had gone well and that there were "no outstanding issues" left between the two parties.
[29] Following the meeting, it was reported by Sky News journalists David Blevins and Connor Sephton that Foster did not return to Belfast as planned,[30] instead choosing to remain in London to continue the talks,[30] and that a DUP source confirmed that a deal would be reached "within the next 24 hours.
[31] However, on 14 June DUP sources stated that no announcement of an agreement would be made that day, as it was deemed to be "inappropriate" to do so while events relating to the Grenfell Tower fire, which had begun in the early hours of the morning, were still developing.
[50] The former DUP mayor of Ballymoney, Ian Stevenson, attracted criticism when he posted an altered photograph on Twitter showing the flag of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) flying outside 10 Downing Street.
[51] The Irish government under outgoing Taoiseach Enda Kenny expressed concerns that a parliamentary deal between a British government and the DUP could put the Northern Ireland peace process at risk, a view also expressed by Sinn Féin politicians Gerry Adams and Gerry Kelly, Labour MP Yvette Cooper and former Downing Street Director of Communications Alastair Campbell.
[52][53][54] This opinion was, however, rejected by the Conservative leadership and former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers, as well as by former Labour minister Caroline Flint who suggested that Gordon Brown may have sought an agreement with the DUP in 2010.
[55][56] The Conservative peer and former UUP First Minister of Northern Ireland, David Trimble, described claims that an agreement would put the peace process at risk as "scaremongering".
[72] Others questioned whether or not the UK Government could maintain its role as neutral arbiter of the Good Friday Agreement if its survival depended on the cooperation of a specific unionist political party from Northern Ireland.
Sinn Féin leader Martin McGuinness claimed that Theresa May was herself already in breach of the Good Friday Agreement and that the new deal could further hamper the formation of a power-sharing executive.
[75] He further added in an op-ed to the Guardian that the agreement's provisions for guaranteed funding were taking place after the loss of over a billion pounds over the past 10 years for Northern Ireland and with a Conservative Party whose political agenda (such as pledges to repeal the Human Rights Act and put an end to the European Court of Justice and the European Convention on Human Rights jurisdiction in the UK) was, in his opinion, at odds with the foundations of a shared and peaceful future for Northern Ireland under the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement.
While our schools are crumbling and our NHS is in crisis, Theresa May chooses to throw cash at ten MPs in a grubby attempt to keep her cabinet squatting in Number 10".
Scottish Conservative leader, Ruth Davidson, stated that it was "absurd" to criticise UK government spending in addition to the Barnett in Northern Ireland, when "the exact same thing happens in Scotland".
[71] In September 2017, the DUP broke with the Conservatives for the first time since the signing of the agreement in order to back non-binding Labour motions on the issues of university tuition fees and pay for NHS employees.
