AFTER INITIALLY APPEARING like a deal could be reached yesterday, no agreement to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland was agreed.
The UK government had been expected to concede that there would be no “regulatory divergence” on the island of Ireland in relation to the single market and customs union, but these plans were scuppered at the last-minute by the DUP.
The unionist party said it wouldn’t accept Northern Ireland having a different deal to the rest of the UK. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar says he is “surprised and disappointed that the British Government now appears not to be in a position to conclude what was agreed earlier”.
As the DUP provides the Conservatives with a majority in the House of Commons, their refusal to back the deal put Prime Minister Theresa May in a very difficult place. She will now face her Cabinet today to explain what the next steps are with the EU.
For the first time since perhaps the Brexit negotiations between the EU and the UK started, it had seemed that a solid agreement was in sight.
Unsurprisingly, both the DUP and May are the targets of the disappointment, and in some cases fury, of the UK papers this morning.
“DUP wrecks May’s Brexit deal”
The Guardian described yesterday as a day of chaos, and said that Tory Brexiters had backed the DUP stance.
“May fights to save Brexit deal after Unionist veto”
The Times said that May has four days to salvage a Brexit deal after the DUP vetoed the deal at the 11th hour.
“DUP-ed”
The Daily Mirror called it an “EU deal shambles”.
“They’re taking the DUP”
The Metro opted for the stance that May had made “concessions” as the Irish border “sinks Brexit talks deal”.
“Chaos”
Other papers offered variation on the themes of chaos and derailment.
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