The Democratic Unionist Party. If you didn’t grow up in Northern Ireland you probably don’t know that much about them. This means you likely had a rude awakening to the reality of them as a party when Theresa May announced the possibility of a coalition with them. How dangerous can 10 Northern Irish MPs no one has ever heard of really be?

I’ll start with a brief history of the party. The DUP was formed in 1971 by Ian Paisley, the founder of the evangelical and fundamentalist Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster (obviously not seen much outside of NI). In 1998 they were the only major party opposed to the Good Friday Agreement. At this time, however, they were not the biggest Unionist party in Northern Ireland. Over the years that followed they would not only become the largest Unionist party, but also the largest party in Northern Ireland. They presented themselves as the bulwark to nationalist control in Northern Ireland, playing on the fears and tribal voting that Sinn Féin had also been using. This created an increasingly polarised Northern Ireland. An oversimplification of the situation yes, but the basic point is they are the main opposition to the major nationalist and republican parties.

"They have anti-women policies, being anti-abortion."

Ok, but what are their policies and how would they affect the rest of the UK? Well let’s start with their actual policies. They are anti-LGBT. They used the petition of concern (essentially a veto when you have more than 30 seats in Stormont) to block gay marriage when the rest of the UK passed it. Their former Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Edwin Poots, refused to remove the ‘gay blood ban’ (has since been lifted) even though Northern Ireland received blood from England where the ban was not in place. They have anti-women policies, being anti-abortion. This is despite them now having a woman at the head of the party. They are staunchly pro-Brexit, although they are unlikely to want a hard border, as many of their constituents would want to maintain trading with the Republic of Ireland.

Maybe these policies aren't that bad. To a liberal they are obviously extreme, but they wouldn’t be anything more than what someone to the right of the Conservatives would believe. However, it’s not just their policies, but what they stand for.

They have shown themselves to be Islamophobic, corrupt, and sectarian on so many occasions I would struggle to mention them all but I will tell you just a few. In 2014 Peter Robinson, the then leader of the party, stated the height of his trust in Muslims would be going to the shops for him. He remained in his position as leader of the party and first minister for a further year after this, until he retired of his own accord. While he apologised for this, he was not the only one to make such comments.

They have a history of corruption, but the largest scandal surrounding them happened only this year. The RHI scandal could cost the taxpayer around £400 million. They are also sounded by a smattering of nepotism and sexism scandals to boot. Finally, they are sectarian. This is the major concern for many people in Northern Ireland. Westminster does not have the opposition parties in place, such as Sinn Féin or SDLP, to stop a sectarian policy. Many people in Northern Ireland fear the removal of many of these protections.

On Northern Ireland, Theresa May is downright dangerous

The main concern here is the normalisation of what is an extreme and antiquated party. What they stand for should in no way be normal or mainstream. I am not talking about their involvement with terrorist organisations: you would be hard pressed to find politicians in Northern Ireland who have no association in any way with ‘terrorist’ organisations. No, I am talking about the fact that many in the party are creationists, many are openly homophobic, opening Islamophobic, less openly but none the less sectarian. They pose a threat. While it may seem like the Tories could just use them for numbers, do not underestimate giving them any kind of power. They will use it