Statement on proposed Conservative Party/DUP deal

I have been contacted by a number of constituents raising concerns about the proposed deal between the Conservative Party and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). 

I have outlined my views on this below.

Firstly, it is not a formal coalition. It is a supply and confidence motion which means the DUP will vote with the Conservatives on issues such as budgets and the Queen Speech. They will not be part of the Government. The Prime Minister has now appointed her Cabinet and it does not contain any DUP members.

Forming a Government that is supported by the DUP does not mean the Conservative Party agrees with all the DUP’s policies. From 2010-2015 we were in a formal coalition with the Liberal Democrats despite there being many key issues where we did not agree with their policies. There are many key issues where we do agree with the DUP such as our approach to defence and terrorism, our general approach to taxation and Brexit. But there also some areas where we clearly do not agree on.

Laws concerning abortion and LGBT rights will not be affected, there are no plans to change legislation and those issues are devolved to the Northern Ireland assembly and therefore the DUP would have no influence over this matters in England.

It is generally the convention in Parliament that areas such as these are a matter of conscience and therefore would be a matter for a free vote.

The DUP will not be able to change the curriculum for schools in England, as it is an English only matter and as far as I am aware there are no plans to change what is taught in schools. Any attempt to change this is unlikely to find any support amongst my colleagues. 

The Conservative party is opposed to the reintroduction of the death penalty. I would vote against any attempt by anyone to introduce a bill for its reintroduction.

As regards to climate change, the British Government has signed the Paris Climate Agreement and will stick to it. There will be no watering down environmental legislation once we leave the EU. As someone who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group to Protect Our Waves, I am keen to see further efforts to reduce pollution and tackle problems of waste entering the environment.

I believe it is important that following the outcome of the election we now get on with forming a Government and providing the leadership the country needs at this time. The only possibility of this happening is if the Conservative Party forms a Government. The Labour Party simply do not have enough members and even if they were supported by all the other parties they would still have less seats than the Conservatives have on our own.