British Prime Minister Theresa May made a deal Monday, June 26, that could keep her minority government alive while it pushes ahead with Brexit negotiations.
But the deal could be seen to contradict London’s neutral role in Northern Ireland and may complicate a political showdown that has shut down the province’s Legislature.
Under the deal, May’s government will allot Northern Ireland an extra 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) in funding for the support of the Protestant-backed Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in the federal Legislature, where it holds 10 seats.
Those 10 seats give May a total of 327 votes, a slim majority of the House of Commons 650 seats and just enough to push through her legislative agenda.
But relying on federal votes from the DUP raises questions of how May’s government will maintain neutrality in Northern Ireland, where DUP holds 28 seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Northern Ireland is one of the U.K.’s four constituent “countries,” or provinces. The country has some powers to legislate and the executive is made up of a first minister from the largest party and a second minister from the second largest party.
