Whoever leads the Conservative Party we will work with as it’s in the national interest"

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The intervention is vital as the Government is currently dependent on Ms Foster’s Democratic and Unionist Party (DUP) for its House of Commons majority. Ms Foster told The Daily Telegraph: “Whoever leads the Conservative Party we will work with as it’s in the national interest. “The reason we signed the agreement was to ensure Brexit.” A so-called confidence and supply agreement between the Conservatives and DUP, allowing the Tories to govern, was signed on June 26 2017.

Ms Foster is clear the agreement isn’t dependent on Theresa May’s leadership of the Conservative Party. She explained: “Out confidence arrangement is with the Conservative Party. “It was signed by the two chief whips. It is a party-to-party agreement.” The DUP leader added, though she insisted the remark wasn’t a criticism of Mrs May, that what “we want to see is belief. We want to see that spirit”.

“It was signed by the two chief whips - it is a party-to-party agreement”

Ms Foster urged the Government, and the Conservative Party, to start making the positive case for Brexit. She said: “We haven’t been able to talk about the aspirations for the nation, we’ve spent so much time arguing about what’s happened.” She added: “I think people want that hope, they want to be positive. “I think the reason why so many people are turned off by Brexit is because they are being fed a diet of negativity”.

“The reason we signed the agreement was to ensure Brexit”