Sammy Wilson, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) spokesman on Brexit, has warned the European Union that they will be “in trouble” if Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement is voted down.
The East Antrim MP’s socially conservative, working-class Northern Irish party provides the Prime Minister’s minority administration with its parliamentary majority, but has vowed to vote against her Brexit deal due to its “backstop” provisions, which they believe will fundamentally undermine their province’s place within the United Kingdom.
The deal’s expected failure in Parliament will not only be bad news for Mrs May, however, but for the EU itself, in Wilson’s estimation — with the former Lord Mayor of Belfast warning: “If you look at the hand which the UK has, once this deal is voted down the EU are in trouble.”
He pointed out that it “seems Germany is going into recession” — a fact little remarked upon by Britain’s broadcast media — “[and] that’s going to put pressure on the EU budget, [especially as] they’re not going to have the £39 billion which they expected to get from Britain.”
The Ulsterman is confident that a clean, sovereign Brexit on World Trade Organization (WTO) terms — the so-called “No Deal” scenario — could be a success, sparing Britain from having to pay a multi-billion “divorce bill” to the EU or follow its rules on customs, competition, state aid, and so on in a way which would more than compensate for the reintroduction of WTO tariffs.
“If the Prime Minister were to use the strong hand which a vote against this agreement gives her tonight, then I believe things can be turned around,” he suggested, adding that his party would not support the vote of no-confidence in her government which Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn — whose Shadow Cabinet has often expressed sympathy for the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) which sought to dislodge Northern Ireland from the British Union through much of the 20th century — has promised to call.
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