Britain’s Conservative Party Calls on the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland for Help

The Prime Minister of Britain, Theresa May, and her Conservative party are in trouble after losing 12 seats in Thursday’s election. In the wake of Brexit negotiations, Theresa May called for an election three years early in hopes of uniting the British people and getting Parliament on the same footing to begin Brexit negotiations with the European Union.

However, the election did not go as she or her party had hoped. It instead revealed a very divided Britain and cause the Conservative Party to lose their governing majority. Mrs. May plans to keep her party in power by forming a coalition minority government with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland (D.U.P.).

Mrs. May explain this the need for such coalition in a statement after the election, “what the country needs more than ever is certainty, and having secure the largest number of votes and the greatest number of seats in the general election, it is clear that only the Conservative and Unionist Party has the legitimacy and the ability to provide that certainty, by commanding a majority in the House of Commons.”

The Conservative party now holds 318 seats in the 650 seat House of Commons, a few seats short of the 326 seats needed for a majority. With the support of the 10 seats that the D.U.P. hold, the Conservative party will have 328 votes and will be able to secure the majority. The Conservative party’s biggest rival, the Labour party, saw strong gains in this election and held 40 percent of the vote. This fracture has created a riff in Parliament and many speculate that there won’t be much legislation getting through.

There is also fear that the expected two year long negotiation of Britain leaving the European Union will be prolonged by the disagreement in Parliament. European officials have tried to calm the notion of prolonged negotiations with statements saying that they are ready for negotiations to begin immediately and that they do not expect a prolonged negotiation.

The D.U.P. of Northern Ireland is historically Protestant, has close ties to the Conservatives, and supported Brexit. The other party in Northern Ireland is D.U.P. republican revival, Sinn Fein.

Brendan Halligan, chairman of the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin explains why the D.U.P. role in British government could cause chaos in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Assembly is currently in deadlock between the D.U.P. and Sinn Fein. “The more they accommodate the D.U.P., the more they put out Sinn Fein, and the more they will come into disagreement with the Dublin government over north-south relationships,” Mr. Halligan said in reference to the long debated and fought over division of Northern Ireland’s place as a part of the Britain.

This favoring of the D.U.P. by the Conservatives will disturb power sharing relations in Northern Ireland. The Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has expressed support for the Irish republican movement and Sinn Fein and its leader, Gerry Adams. This support for Sinn Fein will make the D.U.P. more likely to align with the Conservative Party to keep the Labour Party out of power and unable to united with Sinn Fein to form their own majority. Many fear that the D.U.P. will try to use this coalition to weaken or eradicate power sharing with Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland which could lead to political turmoil and violence in the area.

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