Therese Raphael, Columnist

Has Arlene Foster Finally Overplayed Her Hand?

With the DUP blocking a deal, the parliamentary arithmetic is difficult for Boris Johnson. But a loss wouldn't be the end of the world for him.

October 17, 2019 at 12:44 PM UTC

By Therese Raphael

Therese Raphael is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion covering health care and British politics. Previously, she was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.

A hard break.
Photographer: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images Europe

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There will be time to study the details of the new Brexit deal and draw conclusions about what side gave in the most, and how it will work in practice. The immediate question is whether the U.K. and European Union can make the agreement stick, given that Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party is not on board.

The DUP’s refusal to back the former prime minister Theresa May’s deal ensured it was rejected three times in U.K. parliamentary votes and brought about her downfall. Her successor Boris Johnson seems to be betting that either the hard heads of the DUP will change their minds, or that their support is no longer essential. The first is unlikely, but the second is just about plausible.