){kind=link}
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today Programme, Tory MP Damien Green suggested his party could still reach a deal with the Democratic Unionist party before the Queen’s speech.
DUP sources have said that the two-party negotiations had not proceeded “in the way we would have expected”, but it is still possible Theresa May could go ahead with a minority government.
“There’s still the possibility, there’s every possibility of a DUP deal. The talks have been taking place in a constructive way.” said Damien Green, when asked about the possibility of a successful deal.
“Clearly, two political parties, we have some differences. But we have a lot in common.”
“We’re both unionist parties at our heart. We’re both obviously very concerned with combating terrorism, we both have similar views about delivering a good Brexit for this country and obviously, we’re both very, very concerned with the Irish border issue.
“But all talks of this kind take a long time, and they’re still continuing.” he added.
He did not give much away regarding the speech but said the core element would be about bills associated with Brexit.
“As people will see today, this is not a thin Queen’s speech. Apart from all the Brexit elements there’s huge domestic elements, about the economy, about infrastructure, about fighting injustices, helping people and all of that,”
When asked whether he thought Prime Minister Theresa May was likely to resign, Green said: “Not at all. One of the things about Theresa May is that she has an enormous sense of duty.”
“She knows that the Conservative party didn’t get an absolute majority, but was by far the largest single party. It is her duty, it is our duty, to present our legislative programme to the House of Commons over the next week, and then got on with governing.”