FILE PHOTO - Children play soccer on a pitch at the border crossing between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in Carrickcarnon, Ireland March 30. 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

BELFAST (Reuters) - Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party remains a key player in Brexit and is seeking a time limit on the “backstop” insurance mechanism designed to keep the region’s border with EU-member Ireland open, a senior member said on Wednesday.

Asked if British Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision on Tuesday to hold talks with the opposition Labour party had frozen it out, DUP member of parliament Jeffrey Donaldson told the BBC that the party was “still in a very strong and influential position” and that events could change quickly.

Donaldson said the DUP’s 10 members of parliament, who prop up May’s government, continued to demand changes to her EU withdrawal deal and would need “at the very least a time limit on that backstop” before they would consider supporting it.