

Extracts from the five-page letter, dated November 7 2018, from Theresa May, the prime minister, to Arlene Foster, DUP leader, and Nigel Dodds, deputy DUP leader:

Dear Arlene and Nigel,

Thank you for your letter of November 1 on the United Kingdom’s negotiations with the European Union. Your letter has raised a series of issues about the nature of the backstop.

On never wanting to use the backstop

The backstop is not, and will never be, our preferred outcome. As I said in my statement to parliament last month, it is an insurance policy that no-one in the UK or the EU wants or expects to use. Our overriding priority is to deliver a future partnership between the EU and the whole of the UK