Much vaunted DUP leverage at Westminster vanishes in an instant
Posted By: April 22, 2017
Newton Emerson. Irish News. Belfast. Saturday, April 22, 2017
A general election means the DUP will lose its Commons’ leverage, as has been widely noted – but no report has noted quite how devastating this loss will be. Holding the occasional balance of power at Westminster was the icing on the DUP’s cake and its great consolation in the months since Stormont collapsed. The DUP was certain this would last until 2020, with its eight MPs only becoming more important as Brexit tested a slender Conservative majority. Party figures spoke confidently off the record about how Theresa May would never call an election due to Lib-Dem challenges in the south of England, meaning the DUP would not be bounced into a bad Stormont deal. All that has vanished in an instant.
A general election means the DUP will lose its Commons’ leverage, as has been widely noted – but no report has noted quite how devastating this loss will be. Holding the occasional balance of power at Westminster was the icing on the DUP’s cake and its great consolation in the months since Stormont collapsed. The DUP was certain this would last until 2020, with its eight MPs only becoming more important as Brexit tested a slender Conservative majority. Party figures spoke confidently off the record about how Theresa May would never call an election due to Lib-Dem challenges in the south of England, meaning the DUP would not be bounced into a bad Stormont deal. All that has vanished in an instant.
