The leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Arlene Foster, has returned to London and hopes to finalize a deal to prop up British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government, she told Sky News on Monday.
LONDON The leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Arlene Foster, has returned to London and hopes to finalize a deal to prop up British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government, she told Sky News on Monday.
After May lost her majority in parliament with a botched gamble on a snap June 8 election, she is trying to secure the backing of the DUP’s 10 lawmakers, though talks have dragged on for over two weeks.
“We’re back in London again and my hope is that we will be able to finalize the deal between ourselves and the Conservative Party,” Foster told Sky in an interview.
A spokesman for the DUP confirmed Foster was in London and would meet May on Monday at 0930 GMT.
A deal with May could help drive a second deal on power sharing in Northern Ireland, Foster said.
The province has been in crisis since Sinn Fein pulled out of government in January, prompting an election in March and a series of missed deadlines to restore the compulsory coalition between Irish Catholic nationalists and pro-British Protestant unionists.
“I think that this agreement will bring the prospects of doing a deal at Stormont closer because this will have a positive impact in relation to Northern Ireland,” Foster said, adding that a second deal on power sharing in the province could be reached this week too.
“I very much hope that this week we will be able to conclude on two agreements,” she said.
The latest deadline set by the British government for the parties in Northern Ireland to reach an agreement is Thursday. Sinn Fein said last week that “time was running out” given the lack of knowledge about the impact of any Tory/DUP deal.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge- Editing by Padraic Halpin)
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