DUP unlikely to support proposed Brexit deal until PM May settles Irish backstop

British Prime Minister Theresa May needs to ditch her agreement to an Irish border backstop in her Brexit deal if she is to get the support of the small Northern Irish party which props up her government, a lawmaker from the party said on Thursday.

"There are alternative arrangements that can be put in place without the need for the backstop," Jeffrey Donaldson of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said in parliament.

"If she wants to have the support of my party for the withdrawal agreement, then we need to see an end of the backstop, and those alternative arrangements put in place."