‘May Hung in June’ was the headline in the Economist after the 2017 general election produced a hung parliament. Although the result was incredibly bad for the prime minister Theresa May, a deal with the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) actually doesn’t leave things too far from where they were before the UK went to the polls: the Conservatives lost 12 seats while the DUP has 10 seats of their own. By no means a convincing majority but it might prove enough of a holding plaster for the foreseeable future.

Another advantage for May is that while some have predicted that the DUP tail will be wagging the Tory dog this seems to be very unlikely given that unionists have a strong bond with the Tories and often vote alongside them on a number of issues anyway.

Nevertheless this is not a reason to dismiss the potential influence of the DUP on the next government and given the party’s policies on a range of issues this has got to be of grave concern to those of all political stripes across the country. In a recent FiveThirtyEight podcast the party were compared with the US Republican Party circa 2004 and it is easy to see why…

Climate Change

The party is renowned for being sceptical of man-made climate change and even appointed such a denier as their environment minister. At a time when progressive environmental policies are under threat from Donald Trump as well as within our own government, future policies that relate to renewable energy and the reduction of pollution may prove difficult to get past without the support of opposition parties such as Labour, the SNP, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats. This, however, relies on such policies making it to the floor of the House of Commons in the first place.

Gay Rights
The DUP are opposed to same-sex marriage as part of a range of social policies that belong in the dark ages. They have even previously questioned evolution in another display of their regressive stance.

Terrorism
The DUP continue to receive support from unionist paramilitary organisations in an ironic twist given that much of the campaign was spent with the Conservatives arguing that Corbyn himself is a terrorist sympathiser.

Abortion
As a political movement that has strong ties to Christianity the DUP are strongly against abortion and this policy has had a devastating effect in Northern Ireland where women are often force to cross over to the mainland for the procedure or rely on pills ordered off the Internet.

Northern Ireland
After elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly failed to produce an agreement between the DUP and Sinn Fein there is a real possibility of direct rule from Westminster. With the DUP themselves having the ear of senior Tories and one of their MPs potentially being appointed to the Northern Ireland Office such direct rule could be DUP-rule in disguise.

Brexit
The DUP are pro-Brexit and will most likely provide much needed support to Theresa May when the negotiations come under scrutiny. They do advocate a soft border with the Republic which would be in the interests of both the UK and Ireland from an economic perspective. It will, however, be interesting to see how this plays out with the EU’s negotiating team who may well demand concessions in return. Access to Ireland is essentially access to the free market after all and this may force the UK to accept the free movement of persons in return.

The latest reports suggest that the agreement with the Tories will not concern the more regressive social policies associated with the DUP as this is something that only concerns Ireland. Instead they will focus on restricting a poll on Irish unity (which has always been unlikely in the foreseeable future anyway) and achieving a soft border with the South after Brexit.

This would be good for the UK but will this really prove to be the limit of DUP influence on government? Once the party grows in confidence and the Conservative whip begins to struggle with some of the more renegade Tory MPs the price for continued support may rise sharply.