Wanted to agree on Brexit but Irish backstop remains key problem: DUP

The deputy leader of the Northern Irish party which props up Prime Minister Theresa May's government said his party wanted to agree on a Brexit deal but the issue over the so-called Irish backstop remained the key problem. Nigel Dodds said there had been good talks with senior British ministers, including finance minister Philip Hammond, and progress had been made but it was insufficient and much would depend on what guarantees the government could offer.

"We have always said that we want to get a deal. But it has to be the right deal," Dodds, of the Democratic Unionist Party, told reporters. He said his party had been very disappointed by the legal opinion put forward by the British Attorney General this week on the backstop.

"Now the government is very focused on ensuring that the issue of the backstop, the separation of Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom, that that is addressed," he said.