PM's special dinner invite for Foster and Dodds

By Mark Bain

January 25 2019 11:00 AM

Amid the chaos of Brexit, DUP leader Arlene Foster and party leader at Westminster Nigel Dodds, with their spouses, were the special guests of Prime Minister Theresa May for dinner last Friday night, it has emerged.

It's understood the senior DUP figures were invited to dine with Mrs May and her husband Philip at Chequers in what the DUP said was a 'long standing' social engagement, though they did not stay over.

But the dinner will be seen as an attempt to woo the DUP and build bridges after the disastrous Brexit vote and ahead of the vote on her 'Plan B'.

It came after Cabinet ministers repeatedly stressed the importance of winning over the DUP during meetings in Downing Street earlier the same day with the Prime Minister refusing to re-open the EU Withdrawal Agreement to amend the backstop, a red line for a party who still hold a confidence and supply arrangement to support Mrs May's government.

The 'Plan B' motion will be debated in Parliament on January 29 with a vote later that evening.