Will a £2.2bn bonus persuade Ulster MPs to support Brown?

Could £2.2bn be the price that Gordon Brown is prepared to pay for the Government to defeat the Labour rebels who are opposed to the extension of detention without trial for suspected terrorists to 42 days?

The Prime Minister was announcing at a US-Ulster investment conference in Belfast this afternoon that the Northern Ireland executive can keep £2.2bn raised from asset sales over the next three years.

That is double the amount Northern Ireland is currently allowed to keep in its coffers from the sale of land and assets such as army bases. It is a huge bonus for the new DUP leader Peter Robinson.

The sum could also be just enough to persuade the DUP to vote with the Government when the controversial 42-days proposal is voted on in the Commons. The votes of the nine DUP MPs could be enough to turn the vote in a close-run contest. It recalls the final days of the Callaghan Government when 'Sunny Jim' had to offer special measures to Welsh and Irish MPs to vainly prop up his majority at Westminster.

It could be enough to buy Brown time to get through to the summer recess without further calamities.

THE MOLE: 42-DAY REBELLION

FIRST POSTED MAY 8, 2008