Brexit: Arlene Foster says Theresa May didn't try to get rid of backstop

Mrs Foster spoke at a Brexiteer event in London on Tuesday which was also attended by former Brexit secretaries Dominic Raab and David Davis.

Mrs Foster told the audience she had deja vu having come to London to argue against the Withdrawal Agreement before the meaningful vote was pulled in December.

“We said to the prime minister she had to get rid of the backstop and get a Withdrawal Agreement that can be lived with,” Mrs Foster said yesterday.

“I don’t think she even asked to get rid of the backstop.”

Mrs Foster hit out at the letters exchanged with the EU on Monday and the assurances they contained.

She said: “That does not change the Withdrawal Agreement, which we all know is an international treaty.

“Therefore we will not be able to support the Withdrawal Agreement today.

“I regret that because I want a deal with the EU.”

She added: “We want the PM to go back to the EU and say ‘the backstop must go’.

“It ... separates Northern Ireland from Britain in a very real way.”

Both Mr Raab and Mr Davis agreed that Mrs May should stay on if she loses tonight’s vote, with Mr Davis saying she was “best-placed to renegotiate” with the EU.

Mrs Foster suggested that losing the meaningful vote would “strengthen” Mrs May.

The DUP leader said: “She will be able to go back to the European Union and tell them than she has taken the mood of Parliament, Parliament has rejected the Withdrawal Agreement as it currently stands and therefore there will have to be more negotiations.”

Asked how long the DUP confidence-and-supply deal with the government might last, she added: “We still want to support the government to bring stability to the UK, we still want a Brexit that works for the whole of the United Kingdom ... that still remains the case.

“What we want the prime minister to do is get a deal that works for the whole of the United Kingdom and, frankly, Europe as well. The current deal does not do that.”

A spokesman for the DUP said: “Parliament is today being asked to vote on the legally-binding Withdrawal Agreement negotiated by the prime minister. That does not contain an end date on the backstop.

“The prime minister has known for many weeks what we require. Amendments tabled in Parliament will have no bearing on the legal status of what has been negotiated. What is required is for the prime minister to go and secure legally binding changes as she promised.

“Today’s very belated amendments are part of the internal parliamentary games and do not change the need to secure legally binding changes.”