DUP’s price for propping up Theresa May’s government could cost taxpayers more than £50bn
Insiders signal the Government may have to spend an extra £1.5billion on infrastructure in Northern Ireland
The DUP’s price price for propping up Theresa May’s fragile government could cost taxpayers more than £50 billion, it was claimed last night.
DUP insiders last night signalled their 10 MPs would back the PM’s Queen’s Speech - on the condition the Government spends an extra £1.5 billion on infrastructure in Northern Ireland.
But any increase in spending to Ulster would automatically trigger billions more for Wales, Scotland and England under the controversial Barnett Formula.
A source familiar with the Government’s negotiations with the DUP told The Sun that the Government had given the unionists a “take it or leave it package closer to £750 million” last week.
Even that could trigger extra spending of £26 billion, according to estimates of the Barnett Formula consequentials.
A Lib Dem source blasted: “The Tories claimed there’s no magic money tree, but now it seems they’ll have to find one.”
Last night the DUP’s negotiating team were believed to be flying home to Northern Ireland in a sign of their hardball approach to the talks.
Failure to back the Queen’s Speech could topple Mrs May.
Deputy leader Nigel Dodds said his party would back the Government’s approach to Brexit and signalled DUP would give the Tories a majority in next week’s Queen’s Speech vote - as long as it met its demands.
He said one of those strings was an “end to the dark tunnel of austerity”.
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Mr Dodds said: “We are about strengthening the union, delivering Brexit, defending our country from threats of terrorism at home and abroad, creating prosperity and keeping Northern Ireland moving forward.
“And it’s in furtherance of those objectives that we will act and vote in this parliament over the next five years.”
Earlier in the day First Secretary of State Damian Green insisted there was “still the possibility of a DUP deal”.
And DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said: “I am confident we can get an agreement.”
But Richard Bullick, an architect of the modern DUP and former advisor to leader Arlene Foster, warned of a “souring of relations” between the two parties.
He slammed No10 for a lack of negotiating experience and said another Tory leader “might be more amenable to an early deal”.
And a Tory minister said the chance of a deal is now only “50-50”.
Relations have become so strained that DUP negotiators in Belfast refused to even pick up the phone to their Tory counterparts for 36 hours earlier this week, it emerged last night.
And DUP sources warned that Mrs May would be forced to run "cap in hand" to the unionists every time she needed their backing over the next five years - costing taxpayers even more.
The Treasury refused to comment on claims the DUP deal could cost taxpayers billions.