Well, we are, at the moment, dealing with the general election result, and it did generate only two viable options. One was a minority Conservative Government—the one I, incidentally, favoured, but that would have been fragile, obviously—or, secondly, a combination with the DUP to create a confidence and supply agreement. There was no other combination that could have produced a Government for this country and, clearly, the Prime Minister decided that the need to negotiate a successful Brexit required that greater security of a confidence and supply agreement. It’s on that basis that some cost has been exacted. I’m not surprised that that is now being scrutinised and, of course, it’s quite appropriate that it is.

I have to say, before I get to that, I do find this combination between the Conservative Party and the DUP tricky, because of Northern Ireland’s exceptional status in the UK’s politics. We now have a British Government reliant on an Irish party for the first time since 1910. Like John Major, I note the complications this could introduce to the peace process. However, the extensive financial package that the DUP has negotiated could, at least, assist the re-establishment of the power-sharing Executive. It had been placed under some strain by—let’s call it—austerity politics, before even the biomass heating controversy brought things to a complete halt. As a point of statecraft—and I know the First Minister takes a great interest in the politics of Northern Ireland—I do hope that we will see a chance now for all the parties to work together and to use their additional resources productively.

I note that both the Welsh Government and the Scottish Government have indicated and, indeed, that was repeated this afternoon here, that they’ll instigate the formal dispute mechanism. I think that’s a responsible thing to do if you believe the dispute is of enough gravity to require that, and I’m sure you will make the case very strongly. It is clear, I think—even on this side of the house we have to recognise it—that the deal with the DUP has wider implications, and it does, I concede, pose some serious challenges to the Welsh Conservative Party and to the Scottish Conservatives. However, some of the criticisms that we’ve heard this afternoon have been the stuff of simple partisan conflict. I do think we need a degree of moderation and proportion when we look at these issues, because we are talking about the peace process, Brexit and the future structure of our state, and it does call for statecraft, as well as making more immediate points of impartisan dialogue. We have heard that Gordon Brown, in the dying days of his premiership, did approach the DUP, and, presumably, he would have been faced with the similar difficulties of involving not a party of an ideological stamp—