British PM's North Irish allies say will not vote for Brexit deal

    London, Mar 26 (AFP) Prime Minister Theresa May's Northern Irish allies said Tuesday they would continue to oppose her Brexit deal and raised the prospect of delaying Britain's EU exit by one year to allow more time for negotiations.
    "We will not vote for an unamended or unchanged version," the Democratic Unionist Party's Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson wrote in a commentary in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
    The comments deal a heavy blow to May's chances of getting her deal though parliament, despite influential Brexit-supporting MPs in her party earlier hinting they could back her plan in order to make sure lawmakers do not block the process entirely.
    "There are some colleagues who I admire greatly and who have stood firmly with us in defending Northern Ireland who now take the view that the Withdrawal Agreement, even though it is a rotten deal, is better than losing Brexit," said Wilson.
    "To them I say that, if the deal goes through, we have lost our right to leave the EU. If we sign up to it, we give away our right to leave to the whim and dictates of the EU. That is not Brexit."
    The DUP spokesman said that they were now "engaged in a war of attrition" with Remain supporting MPs in deciding the course of Brexit, suggesting they would rather see a long extension than sign up to May's deal.
    "Even if we are forced into a one-year extension, we at least would have a say on the things which affect us during that time and would have the right to unilaterally decide to leave at the end of that one-year," he wrote.
    He later tweeted that "we won't let the PM or the Remainer horde in Parliament bully us into backing a toxic Brexit." (AFP) SCY
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