This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Theresa May’s attempts to woo the Democratic Unionist party with a pledge over the contentious backstop have failed after the party branded the proposals as “cosmetic and meaningless”.

At the same time Ireland’s prime minister Leo Varadkar, reflecting the principles of the withdrawal agreement, said Stormont could not have the power of veto over the backstop.

“I don’t think we can have a situation whereby the Northern Ireland executive or assembly has a veto power [over the backstop] because that would essentially give one of the two communities veto power over the other,” he told Reuters in Ethiopia.

With less than a week to go to the critical parliamentary vote on the Brexit withdrawal agreement, the government appears no closer to securing the 10 votes of the DUP MPs needed to get the deal over the line.

In a 13-page document published on Wednesday, the government promised a “strong role” for the currently defunct Stormont assembly if the Brexit backstop was triggered.

It promised that if the trade talks with the EU failed to result in a deal by the end of the transition period in December 2020, Stormont would be consulted before the government decided its next move. Under the current deal the UK can ask for an extension in the transition period or enter the backstop arrangements.

Under the plan, the view of the assembly, which has not been sitting for two years, would then be presented to parliament before MPs took a final decision.

The paper promised that this “Stormont lock” on the backstop would be a legally binding commitment.

“Where appropriate we will legislate to ensure that these commitments have legal force,” the government said in its paper, the UK Government Commitments to Northern Ireland and its Integral Place in the United Kingdom.

However, the DUP immediately rejected the paper, dashing hopes that the party would get behind May for the vote on her Brexit deal next Tuesday.

Tory sources who were ambivalent about the vote had said that the support of the DUP could “unlock” 20 to 30 more hard Brexiter votes for May, something now unlikely.

Nigel Dodds, the leader of the DUP in the House of Commons, said the proposal to ensure “a strong role for the Northern Ireland assembly before Northern Ireland-specific backstop provisions are given effect is cosmetic and meaningless”.

He said the paper itself indicated that the proposals made it plain the Stormont assembly would never be able to “override” the backstop as it would be part of an internationally binding treaty.

Any objections that were raised in Stormont could be rejected by London, said Dodds, MP for Belfast North.

The DUP’s Sammy Wilson told Sky News there was “nothing at all” to fear from a no-deal Brexit.

“We would prefer to have the relationship sorted out but it can’t be sorted out on the basis of breaking up the UK,” said the East Antrim MP.

“This issue is far too important,” he added, “This is an issue about if Northern Ireland stays in the UK, whether Northern Ireland keeps linked to its main market in GB. Constitutionally and economically if this deal went through it would ruin us.

“We would do what the IRA failed to do over 40 years of a terrorist campaign,” he said in reference to their desire for a united Ireland.

Publishing the paper, cabinet office minister David Lidington said the “commitments underline Northern Ireland’s integral place in the United Kingdom and reflect that it is the only part of the United Kingdom sharing a land border with an EU member state.”.