Ireland's prime minister warns Theresa May over deal with DUP - Independent

Ireland's prime minister warns Theresa May over deal with DUP

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the arrangement must not jeopardise the Good Friday Agreement

• Jon Stone Political Correspondent 

Ireland’s prime minister has issued a warning to Theresa May over her plans to do a deal with the DUP to prop up a Tory minority government.

Enda Kenny, who has been Taoiseach since 2011, said he had indicated his “concern” to the prime minister over the plan.

Mr Kenny suggested that the arrangement, if poorly handled, could jeopardise the peace process in Northern Ireland. 

He also raised concerns about the lack of a nationalist voice in favour of a united Ireland at Westminster – where the SDLP are now wiped out and Sinn Fein do not take their seats on principle.

He tweeted on Sunday: “Spoke with prime minister May - indicated my concern that nothing should happen to put Good Friday Agreement at risk, and [the] absence of nationalist voice in Westminster.”

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is the biggest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and is currently engaged in a negotiations after the collapse of the powersharing administration that runs the Northern Ireland Executive. 

Mr Kenny is the outgoing Taoiseach and will soon be replaced by Ireland's Taoiseach-elect Leo Varadkar, who won a Fine Gael internal party election earlier this month.