DUP 'King-makers' have all the cards as Tories look to form Government
Ten seats will go long way as Theresa May secure's her position in No 10
Last updated 9th Jun 2017
After an incredible night in politics, what now for NI’s big General Election winners. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT JORDAN MOATES analyses what happens next for the DUP
Two years ago the potential for the DUP to be Kingmakers was the focus of that campaign…
This time around, no-one really considered it but it now looks very much like a reality.
To secure her position in Downing Street 10 seats from Arlene Foster’s party will go a very long way.
This puts the DUP in an extremely strong position, the Conservatives ultimately need them more than the DUP need the Tories
There are other options, Prime Minister Theresa May could look to the Lib Dems, but they didn’t have the best of results from their last coalition experience
East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson considers what they might want to get out of an agreement
He told me: “We are going to use the effective opposition that we have and that we can use to the betterment of the people of Northern Ireland.”
Influence with the British government will be vital with the DUP given that talks at Stormont are set to resume on Monday morning.
As party leader Arlene Foster warned it would be difficult for Theresa May to stay in Number 10, the former Stormont first minister is in line to be power broker for any new government.
The focus was immediately on Ms Foster's wish-list and any Brexit concessions for Northern Ireland as her party prepare to talk to the Conservatives over the weekend.
I certainly think that there will be contact made over the weekend but I think it's too soon to talk about what we're going to do. I think we need to wait and see,'' Ms Foster said.
Ms Foster will be looking for guarantees on preventing a hard border with the Republic of Ireland and any new customs operations.
One red line is the idea of Northern Ireland being granted some sort of special status'' when Brexit comes to pass.
The DUP will not stand for any arrangement that physically sets the region apart from anywhere else in the UK, including suggestions that border, immigration and customs controls could be set up at ports and airports like Stranraer and Liverpool rather than in Belfast or Larne.
Another big price to pay for the party's support in Westminster could be the reinstatement of any EU subsidies that farmers lose when Brexit is a done deal.
They were worth about £350 million a year.
Another set of funds doled out by Brussels could also be on Ms Foster's shopping list - about £400m of payments due over the next four years that go to community development and cross-border projects as part of a dividend for the peace process.
But there are contradictions.
The DUP, with its strong links to the business community in Northern Ireland, does not want to see the region set apart from the rest of Britain but it may also use its strong hand to push for a reduced corporation tax rate.
The Republic's 12.5% rate has been a bone of contention at times, including with suggestions from some quarters that Dublin poached foreign investors considering locations north of the border.
And when it comes to the border with the Republic, Ms Foster will not want to see any physical manifestation of the divide between the EU and the UK.
That is a sentiment echoed in Dublin.
Put simply, in the minds of the political kingmakers, there is too much north-south trade, travel and commuter traffic on a daily basis for physical border, customs or immigration checks to be established.
And with the DUP's new found position as power brokers, its website crashed from the the surge in internet traffic.