Northern Irish parties will meet Northern Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris on Tuesday in a further attempt to break the political deadlock at Stormont.
The Conservative MP failed to call a fresh Assembly election on Friday after the final deadline to restore the North’s political institutions was missed. There is confusion over whether there will be an election before Christmas, with the Electoral Office working towards a potential December 15th poll date.
Mr Heaton-Harris – who had repeatedly said he would call an election if the deadline for the restoration of the Assembly was not met – must do so by November 8th at the latest if the vote is to take place in mid-December. He has said he still intends to call an election and pledged to provide an update this week.
He will hold discussions with Sinn Féin, the DUP, Alliance and UUP on Tuesday and is expected to speak to the SDLP later. He is also due to meet Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney before the end of the week.
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In a statement, Mr Heaton-Harris said Tuesday’s meetings would focus on the “next steps”, including how public services in Northern Ireland could be run in the absence of ministers, how to protect public finances, and to consider options regarding MLAs pay.
However, the talks are not expected to lead to any breakthrough, with DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson emphasising again on Monday that any change to his party’s position was dependent on progress on the Northern Ireland protocol.
The Assembly has been unable to operate since May’s election because the DUP is refusing to go back into government until its demands regarding the post-Brexit protocol – which is opposed by unionists – are met.
Mr Donaldson said Mr Heaton-Harris “must understand that there will not be a solid basis for an Executive and Assembly until the protocol is replaced with arrangements that restore Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom internal market and our constitutional position is respected”.
His party colleague, Gordon Lyons, the former minister for the economy, told BBC Radio Ulster that the UK government had wrongly believed its threat about calling an election would force the DUP to end its block on powersharing.
Sinn Féin said on Monday that the UK government must follow through and call an election.
“We’re no clearer today than we were on Friday as to what the Secretary of State intends to do,” former minister for finance Conor Murphy told the BBC.
“The DUP are holding out to get some certainty from a government that isn’t certain itself about what it’s doing, and it’s preventing the rest of us from getting on with the business of providing support to people here in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.”
The PSNI said on Monday that it would “continue to proactively monitor community tensions as well as the intent and capability of paramilitary organisations”. This followed a report in the Belfast Telegraph which claimed loyalist paramilitaries halted an attack on a “government target” in the Republic of Ireland at the last minute after the UK government published a statement confirming joint authority over Northern Ireland was not being considered.
It was aware of the article “concerning uncorroborated reports regarding Irish Government Ministers”, the PSNI said.
Meanwhile, MPs at Westminster are to examine the effectiveness of the powersharing institutions established under the Belfast Agreement as it approaches its 25th anniversary next year. The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee wants people from “all walks of life” to submit their view on how well the bodies it created, including the Executive and Assembly, have performed and how they might be improved. – Additional reporting: PA
