Arlene Foster interview: The DUP leader on abortion, Brexit and a possible UK General Election
The leader of the DUP has said her party has no regrets about backing Brexit, insisting it can still be delivered in a way that protects the Union.
Arlene Foster said her party had yet to decide whether to back the Prime Minister’s call for a general election but she did express concern at his proposed timeline, suggesting it might not provide sufficient time to scrutinise his Brexit deal in Parliament.
In a wide-ranging interview with the ahead of the DUP’s annual conference in Belfast Ms Foster spoke about backing Brexit, rejected abortion and the prospect of the potential upcoming general election in the UK
At the Unionist party's conference last year, Boris Johnson pledged to delegates that he would never create economic borders in the Irish Sea.
On Brexit
“I think it’s for him to reflect on his words because we are not the people who have changed our position, it’s him who has changed his position,” she said.
We always have and we try to have outside speakers come along and engage with our people – he made commitments on our stage last year that he has clearly walked away from, so it’s more a case he needs to reflect on what he said.
Ms Foster declined to state whether she now trusted the Prime Minister.
“We trust ourselves and we trust ourselves to do what’s right for Northern Ireland,” she said when asked.
“When we saw the outline of what he’d agreed, we knew that it was not going to be a good deal for Northern Ireland.”
I don’t regret the party’s position on Brexit, we campaigned for Brexit, we believed in Brexit
“We still believe in Brexit because we believe it’s right to leave the European Union institutions. And you know, believing in Brexit and strongly believing in the Union are not mutually exclusive.
“We want to see a Brexit deal delivered that protects the Union because for me, the most important single market is the United Kingdom single market.
“And the difficulty with where we are at the moment with this deal is the fact that it breaks up the UK single market and leaves us outside of it.”
Possible UK General Election
“We backed the Prime Minister previously, when he’s looked for a general election, because it has simply been a general election he’s been looking for,” she said.
But this general election that he’s talking about at this moment in time is actually linked to the withdrawal agreement.
“What he’s trying to do is to shorten the length of time where we can actually scrutinise the Bill and put down amendments to that as well. So, we have to look at that in the round and say, is this the right thing for Northern Ireland?
"To go along with this, or should we actually not vote for his election on Monday and actually look at the Withdrawal Agreement in a longer period of time?
“So those are the things we have to discuss this weekend and then come to a decision on Monday.”
The DUP's abortion challenge
“We have gone back to the attorney general,” she said.
“Paul Givan (DUP MLA) who was bringing forward the Defence of the Unborn legislation has written to the attorney general about our options.
“So that’s an ongoing discussion with him.
I mean the thing that disappointed me I suppose most about Monday was the cat calling and the abuse and the negativity about what we were trying to do.
“We were trying to bring about a piece of legislation through the Assembly, and the Assembly has the power to do that.
“If we had have appointed an Assembly speaker on Monday, then it would have become a legislative assembly again, yes, we wouldn’t have had an executive. And that’s not right. We should have an executive, but it’s wrong to say that we couldn’t have had an Assembly we could have had an Assembly on Monday.
“And, unfortunately, other parties wouldn’t come forward and agree with us in relation to that.
“So there has to be a pathway found, and we need to find that pathway.”
Possible loyalist disorder post-Brexit
Police Service of Northern Ireland chief constable Simon Byrne is among those who have voiced concern at the prospect of violence at the border post-Brexit.
When asked about the issue ahead of her party conference this weekend, Ms Foster suggested Mr Varadkar’s words had been a contributory factor.
“Of course any violence or threat of violence should not be adhered to,” she told the .
When Leo Varadkar talked about the possibility of dissident violence along the border, if there were any border infrastructure piece, I thought that was wrong. I said so at the time.
“Because you can’t use the threat of violence to achieve something.
“And that unfortunately now has set a precedent where people from loyalism are looking at that, and they’re saying ‘hold on a second, he used that in that particular way, so now we’re going to use that’.
“That’s wrong. That is not the way forward.”
Renewable Heat Incentive inquiry
“As regard to my position, I’m confident that we will be able to deal with all of those issues when it comes out.”
Under the Maxwellisation protocol, Ms Foster has been given a chance by the inquiry to respond to its findings on her prior to publication.
“Those of us who are in involved in the process will have had our Maxwellian letters – that’s the process of giving just to our particular issues where we’re involved – so I don’t know what the overall inquiry report is going to be,” she said.
"But there will be learnings from the inquiry report. I actually think when it comes out, at least we will have closure on this issue.
It’s been hanging around the administration and politics here now for a number of years, it’s important to have closure on it.
“It’s important that we take the learnings from that and we adapt in whatever way we need to adapt to move forward.”
