THERESA MAY has congratulated the Irish people on their decision in the abortion referendum, risking the wrath of the north’s ultra-conservative Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which seeks to preserve the strict abortion restrictions in Northern Ireland.

On Saturday referendum results showed that 66.4 per cent of the Irish electorate had voted in favour of repealing the constitutional ban on abortion. The decisive vote has prompted debate about whether Northern Ireland will follow suit.

British ministers have indicated their support for liberalisation of laws to bring them into line across the British Isles and scores of MPs across the Commons have indicated they are prepared to act to rewrite the current legislation given the absence of a devolved administration in Stormont.

But the prime minister is torn between them and the 10 DUP MPs who have propped up her government since she threw away the Tory majority in last year’s snap general election.

DUP MP Ian Paisley said Northern Ireland “should not be bullied into accepting abortion on demand,” but Labour MP Stella Creasy claimed more than 140 parliamentarians had already signalled support for an effort to change the law in Northern Ireland.

In a message to the DUP, she said the people of Northern Ireland “consistently support change” in the abortion law and it was “time to put them, not power in Westminster, first.”

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said he would back reform of Northern Ireland’s strict laws in a free vote.

Women in Ireland and Northern Ireland should have the same rights as those elsewhere in the British Isles, he told Sky’s Ridge on Sunday, but stressed Labour must “tread sensitively and be aware of the realities of devolution.”

Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O’Neill said she would like the decision to be taken in Northern Ireland but, in the absence of a Stormont executive, “we have to find a way to deliver rights.”

She told ITV’s Peston On Sunday: “I think the fact there is a recognition even here in England that the law needs to change in the north of Ireland is a good thing.”

Lamiat Sabin is Morning Star parliamentary reporter.