Theresa May faces fury as deal with the DUP to stay in power could cost British taxpayers £24BILLION

THERESA May faced fury after it emerged her deal with the DUP to stay in power could cost British taxpayers a staggering £24.3billion.

The PM finally signed a five year ‘confidence and supply’ agreement with the Ulster unionist party after 17 days of torturous negotiations.

It gives her the crucial support of the DUP’s 10 MPs during major votes, meaning her minority government will now have a working majority of 13.

Hailing the deal, Mrs May declared it “gives us the certainty we require” as Brexit negotiations begin.

But Westminster was left aghast as the true cost of the deal emerged.

Up front, in exchange for the DUP’s votes Mrs May agreed an extra £1bn package of spending for Northern Ireland for roads, schools, hospitals and broadband.

But the DUP also won very costly commitments on a host of other big policy areas, including;

• forcing the Tories to fully ditch their plan to end the pensions Triple Lock in 2020 – costing as much as £14bn over two years;
• ripping up Tory plans to means test Winter Fuel Payments so even wealthy pensioners will still get it for a further five years – costing £8.5 billion over five years
• guaranteeing farming to Northern Ireland once EU cash is withdrawn for at least three years after Brexit in 2019 - costing £780m.

Other concessions from Mrs May include agreeing to look at reducing the level of VAT and Air Passenger Duty in the province to boost its tourism trade.

In return, the DUP’s 10 MPs will vote for Mrs May’s Queen’s Speech on Thursday, a key moment which could have seen her government fall without their support.

The Ulster MPs will also back the Budget and other finance bills, the huge swathe of Brexit laws and new counter-terrorism legislation to toughen up police and MI5 powers.

But the DUP’s support for any other subjects would mean having to broker a further agreement, giving the tiny party the chance to force even more cash out of the Treasury.

And though the deal is for five years, it will be reviewed in May 2019 – meaning the DUP could then rip it up.

Publishing the deal’s details, No10 insisted there would be no new money for the Scots or Welsh under the Barnett formula of regional spending as it was just “a targeted intervention” not a permanent uplift.

That lead to uproar, with Wales’s First Minister and Labour boss Carwyn Jones dubbing it “outrageous” and “a straight bung”.

The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford accused Mrs May of signing a
“a grubby deal”, having suddenly found “a magic money tree to help them stay in power”.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the deal was “not in the national interest but in May’s party’s interest to help her cling to power”.

But First Minister and Mrs May’s deputy Damian Green justified it by saying Northern Ireland needed the extra money to help develop the peace process.

The Conservatives had “a duty” to form a Government after the General Election, and the DUP deal made it “more likely” that devolved government would be restored in Northern Ireland, he added.

The DUP’s Westminster leader Nigel Dodds dubbed Labour and the SNP’s attacks as “faux outrage” and “hypocrisy of the highest order” after revealing BOTH parties have tried to do deals with them in the past.

Mr Dodds told a heated Commons debate: “Some day, I’d like to think we would publish all the correspondence and conversations we had in 2010 and 2015 with the Labour front bench, and indeed with the SNP as well”.

DUP leader Arlene Foster came to No10 to witness the deal’s signing with Mrs May and pose for triumphant photos.

Ex-Tory chairman Chris Patten has warned the “toxic brand” of the DUP would taint Mrs May and the party.

But ex-Conservative PM David Cameron gave the deal his backing, tweeting: “Task facing PM, given the circs, is to deliver the most stable govt possible - today’s DUP deal helps achieve that. All Cons should support”.

Deficit hawks also attacked Mrs May for kissing goodbye to trying to balance the books.

Institute of Economic Affairs Director General Mark Littlewood said the deal “ignores some economic realities”, adding: “With an ageing population, the triple lock mechanism, as well as universal pensioner benefits, equate to ever-increasing spending on pensioners relative to a shrinking working population which is simply not sustainable”.