British PM's North Irish allies say will not vote for Brexit deal

Prime Minister Theresa May's Northern Irish allies said Tuesday they would continue to oppose her Brexit deal and raised the prospect of delaying Britain's EU exit by one year to allow more time for negotiations.

"We will not vote for an unamended or unchanged version," the Democratic Unionist Party's Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson wrote in a commentary in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The comments deal a heavy blow to May's chances of getting her deal though parliament, despite influential Brexit-supporting MPs in her party earlier hinting they could back her plan in order to make sure lawmakers do not block the process entirely.

"There are some colleagues who I admire greatly and who have stood firmly with us in defending Northern Ireland who now take the view that the Withdrawal Agreement, even though it is a rotten deal, is better than losing Brexit," said Wilson.

"To them I say that, if the deal goes through, we have lost our right to leave the EU. If we sign up to it, we give away our right to leave to the whim and dictates of the EU. That is not Brexit."