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DUP leader Arlene Foster has said her party would \u201clook at\u201d a time-limited backstop \u2013 as she insisted there remained a chance of finding a deal before October 31.<\/p>\nDUP leader Arlene Foster has said her party would \u201clook at\u201d a time-limited backstop \u2013 as she insisted there remained a chance of finding a deal before October 31.<\/p>\n
The proposal would put a deadline on the backstop arrangement required by the European Union to avoid a hard border in Ireland \u2013 but it has previously been rejected by the government.<\/p>\n
Mrs Foster told a Policy Exchange fringe event at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester: \u201cIn terms of the time-limited backstop, can I remind you what Leo Varadkar thinks of the time-limited backstop \u2013 he says it is not a backstop at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so in terms of the time-limited backstop we have said in the past it is something we would look at.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it is something that Leo Varadkar would look at, but certainly if a time-limited backstop was on offer it is something that we would look at but I don\u2019t believe it is at this present moment in time.\u201d<\/p>\n
She described the backstop proposal as \u201canti-democratic\u201d, but said she believed a \u201cway forward\u201d existed \u2013 claiming it was possible to find a deal \u201ceven at this late stage\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI firmly believe that there is a way forward, that if the European Union and the Republic of Ireland government in particular care about protecting the Belfast Agreement as they say they are, then they need to acknowledge that the backstop will not do it for Northern Ireland or indeed the rest of the United Kingdom and therefore we need to find a new way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs Foster, whose party props-up Boris Johnson\u2019s minority government, later added: \u201cI think even at this late stage we can find a deal that is acceptable to the House of Commons and is acceptable to Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, she remained adamant that Northern Ireland had to \u201cleave on the same terms as the rest of the United Kingdom\u201d in relation to customs arrangements.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot have internal customs borders within the United Kingdom\u2026 it has constitutional implications as well as economic implications.<\/p>\n
\u201cActually when you think of the amount of trade we do East-West and West-East it completely blows out of the water the North-South trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying the North-South trade is not important \u2013 it is of course important \u2013 but our East-West trade is much more important.\u201d<\/p>\n