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The DUP's £1 Billion Confidence And Supply Deal Could Buy These 9 Things

Nurses, police officers, firefighters...
Jack Sommers
By 

Assistant News Editor, HuffPost UK

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The DUP has signed a deal to prop up the Tory minority Government and earned itself £1 billion in the process.

In exchange for the cash, the DUP’s 10 MPs will vote with the Government to support the Queen’s Speech and any budget, as well as against any no confidence motion Labour might try and use to bring the Government down.

The £1 billion will go on infrastructure in Northern Ireland including health and education.

To keep her Government afloat, Theresa May has also agreed to ditch the manifesto pledges to means-test winter fuel payments for pensioners and axe the ‘triple lock’ guarantee on state pensions.

This will, presumably, mean she has to look elsewhere to save money, as the NHS faces financial crisis and recent events expose the extent of cuts to emergency services.

Here are the things, from policing to health, that £1 billion could buy:

1
Don't cut the Met Police budget. Recruit 20,000 new cops for London instead
PA Wire/PA Images
Recent terrorist attacks in the capital have reheated the debate around police numbers, which have fallen amid cuts. Another £400 million is set to be axed from Metropolitan Police's budget.
If you skipped that cut, you could spend the remaining £600 million on new officers.
A PC with the force starts on a salary of £22,896, plus £6,711 London allowances.
2
45,419 new trainee firefighters
TOLGA AKMEN via Getty Images
The Grenfell Tower fire focussed attention on firefighter numbers after years of austerity. A new firefighter starts on £22,017. As of 2016, there were 42,300 full-time firefighters in England.
3
46,000 new nurses for a year
Getty Images
A fully qualified nurse starts on £21,692. The NHS currently employs 285,000 nurses.
4
1,117 MRI scanners for the NHS
Alamy
The cost of a new scanner is £895,000. A 2014 report by the OECD found Britain had fewer if the life-saving machines than nearly any other country in the developed world.
5
Build 5,264 houses
Yui Mok/PA Archive
Combat the housing crisis - a bit. A new-build house is said to cost £189,940 on a development.
6
Fund the whole of the BBC for two and a half months
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
The corporation's annual budget is around £4.8 billion.
7
Pay tuition fees for 37,000 students' degrees
Dominic Harris/PA Archive
Footing the £9,000 annual charge for a three-year degree.
8
Build 71 schools
Matt Cardy via Getty Images
£14 million on each new building.
9
Field an entire football team of Paul Pogbas
EMPICS Sport
Manchester United set a new transfer record when it bought Paul Pogba from Juventus for £89 million. The DUP's windfall is enough to buy him 11 times over and challenge United. How well they'd fare with a team made up entirely of the same midfielder remains to be seen.
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