After
weeks of wrangling, Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party
agreed on Monday to give Prime Minister Theresa May the votes she
needs to stay in office and push through legislation ensuring that
the United Kingdom exits the European Union.
While
the Democratic Unionist leader, Arlene Foster, spoke of the deal
being “in the national interest” of the U.K. as a whole,
commentators pointed to what looked like a massive concession to
Northern Ireland’s local government — an additional 1 billion
pounds in social welfare spending.
The
money, though, was probably less important to the D.U.P. than staving
off what it sees as a nightmarish alternative: the specter of Jeremy
Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, becoming prime
minister.
That’s
because the election campaign that just concluded, with a hung
Parliament in which no single party holds a majority of seats, kicked
off a remarkable surge in popularity for Corbyn. That surge, lifting
Corbyn and Labour, has shown no signs of abating since the votes were
cast on June 8.
The
Labour leader was widely seen to have handled the aftermath of the
tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in London better than the prime
minister — comforting victims as she dodged the public — and
opinion polls suggest that his party would win a new election if May
is unable to govern.
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