Opinion – Conservative-DUP coalition is the best possible result for ‘Hard Brexit’

For those in Britain who desire a ‘hard Brexit’, the best possible result has been achieved.

In British politics there are 650 seats, and a party must secure over half of these to hold the majority; the minimum number of seats a party needs to push legislature through parliament is 326. With 649 out of 650 of the results in, the Conservatives currently hold 318 seats, meaning that they need another 8 seats to secure their majority.

Without at least 326 members of parliament agreeing on an issue, nothing can be passed through parliament. Thus we currently have a hung-parliament as the Conservatives do not have the required amount. The DUP have 10 seats, and thus a coalition between the two parties would bring their number of seats to 328 – just enough to secure a majority.

Prior to the election, the desired result for Britons with more ‘traditional’ and ‘patriotic’ ideals was for the Conservatives to win with a small majority. There were fears that Theresa May sought a large Conservative majority so that she could ignore the ‘hard-Brexiters’ in her own party like Mogg and Davis.

If she had achieved a large majority of Conservatives then it would not matter if the hard Brexiters voted against her proposals, she would still have an excess of seats to secure her ‘watered down’ version of Brexit.

With only a small majority she would know that she would have to appease these more euro-skeptic members of her party, as it is unlikely that Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens or the SNP will support anything to do with Brexit.

The small majority was not achieved by the Conservative party, as 318 seats is not enough. Thus they will have to make a coalition with the DUP, who are the only other pro-Brexit party to get any seats – UKIP got 0 seats this election.

The DUP are a more ‘right-wing’ party than the Conservatives or UKIP, and are characterised by their strong religious views. They are the only party with seats in Britain who want to bring back the death penalty, who oppose homosexuality and abortion, and who wish to see Christian values taught in schools.

The 10 seats that they secured would usually be seen as unimportant, but this General Election they will be the deciding factor. The DUP will have a disproportionate amount of power in the coalition as without them the Conservatives will not be able to push anything through parliament.

It is unlikely that the DUP will be able to have any significant impact regarding most social policy in the UK, as the Conservatives are largely in agreement with the more ‘progressive’ parties like Labour or the Liberal Democrats.

The DUP will have an influence in regards to economic policy, and particularly Brexit however. Without the DUP’s support in these areas the Conservatives will not be able to get their way as the rest of parliament can be expected to be against them. Austerity measures are deeply unpopular with Labour, the SNP and the Liberal Democrats, as is Brexit.

For those in Britain who desire a ‘hard Brexit’, the best possible result has been achieved. With a very small majority of 328, Mrs May (or whomever takes over the Conservatives should she step down) will need to make sure that all of the ‘hard Brexiters’ within the Conservative party and the even more euro-skeptic DUP are happy with her proposals.

This means that we will get a ‘harder’ Brexit with the Tory-DUP coalition than we would have with any other result; if the Conservatives had a large majority they could have secured a soft Brexit, and if the ‘Progressive Alliance’ had won we might have even had Brexit cancelled entirely. This election is a great victory for the hard-Brexit crowd.