UK's May strikes $1.3 billion deal with Northern Irish party to prop up government

Source: Reuters

Prime Minister Theresa May struck a deal on Monday to prop up her minority government by agreeing to at least 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) in extra funding for Northern Ireland in return for the support of the province's biggest Protestant party.

After over two weeks of talks and turmoil sparked by May's failure to win a majority in a June 8 snap election, she now has the parliamentary numbers to pass a budget and a better chance of passing laws to take Britain out of the European Union.

May and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster presided at the signing of a three-page so-called "confidence and supply" deal that is some way short of a more formal coalition agreement.

It means the DUP's 10 lawmakers will now vote in support of May's 318 Conservatives in the 650-seat parliament on the budget, legislative agenda, motions of confidence and Brexit.

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