New sections of Arlene Foster’s Sky interview show she talked of opposition to PM’s Brexit deal in past tense

In further comments consistent with her later comment that the DUP had accepted it would have to implement the Prime Minister’s deal, Mrs Foster said that “there was a different way” but again did not suggest that the party was still attempting to overturn the Irish Sea border.

Having accepted that the deal was now reality, she repeatedly referred to her position being to “mitigate against that protocol” and “mitigate against the damage that it could do to Northern Ireland”, going on to suggest that more money from London would be part of mitigating the constitutional damage done by the new internal UK trade border.

When asked if she thought she was succeeding and it was put to her that the government seemed to be pressing ahead with the deal to the satisfaction of the EU, meaning that there will be additional paperwork for goods leaving Northern Ireland for Great Britain, Mrs Foster appeared to indicate that she was now attempting to ensure those checks could be done digitally rather than on paper.

She said: “And that’s the conversation we’re having at the moment. When you talk about paperwork. What does that actually mean? Is it actual paperwork or is it a digital solution?”.

Later in the interview, Mrs Foster again referred in the past tense to the DUP having opposed Mr Johnson’s deal and then added: “But Boris Johnson is Prime Minister; he took it to the Commons, he gained the support he needed, and therefore it became law.

“I mean, there are some who would continue to fight against the protocol, I have to recognise that that is the reality now.”

When it was put to Mrs Foster that she was going to have to be part of a process that implements the deal she dislikes and which loyalists branded “the betrayal act”, the First Minister said: “Yes, we do.”

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