Deal with DUP means London is no longer honest broker on North

Peter Hain says any May deal with the DUP is so damaging for the Belfast Agreement

Peter Hain

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said on Monday (June 12) any deal between British Prime Minister Theresa May's minority government and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) would be "a coalition for chaos".

In Northern Ireland the British government must always be seen to act in good faith. I learned this personally when trying to bring together bitter old enemies, the Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, who at the time had never exchanged a word, let alone negotiated with each other.

Some months before they so improbably became the “chuckle brothers” ruling Northern Ireland’s newly devolved government, Paisley wanted an absolute assurance that Sinn Féin would back something historically impossible for it: policing and the rule of law. He assured me he would govern with Sinn Féin but only if that was guaranteed: it was his bottom line.

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