Pre-Christmas election looms in Northern Ireland as deadline for devolved government passes

28 October 2022, 09:40

Northern Ireland is on course for a pre-Christmas Assembly election as the deadline to restore devolved government at Stormont has elapsed.

It is the culmination of a political crisis which has been brewing for months with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) refusing to return to power-sharing since losing its status as the nation's largest party to Sinn Fein in May - as it opposed the Northern Ireland Protocol.

A six-month legislative timeframe to form an administration expired in the early hours of Friday, and with no ministerial executive in place, the UK government assumes a legal responsibility to call another election.

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Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is expected to call the election on Friday, following the failure of a last-ditch effort to restore the power sharing executive.

Mr Heaton-Harris has not yet laid out the details of a new election but it is thought the poll is likely to take place on December 15.

Meanwhile, Stormont ministers ceased to hold office at midnight after operating in shadow form since the Assembly collapsed earlier this year.

Senior civil servants will now be responsible for running devolved departments until a government is formed.

The DUP's boycott of the Stormont institution is part of a campaign of opposition to the protocol, with the party claiming it will not return to power-sharing until decisive action is taken to remove economic barriers on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

On Sunday, Ireland's foreign minister Simon Coveney said "political instability" in Westminster caused by two prime ministers in as many months meant it was "impossible" for the EU and UK to strike a deal on the protocol by Friday.

The government has vowed to secure changes to the protocol to empower ministers to scrap the arrangements without the approval of Brussels - either by a negotiated compromise with the EU or through proposed domestic legislation.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said not enough progress has been made on addressing issues of concern around the protocol.

But Sinn Fein's Stormont leader Michelle O'Neill said the DUP "have left us all at the mercy of a heartless and dysfunctional Tory government".

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also urged the DUP to get back to Stormont just hours before the deadline to restore devolution elapsed.

His official spokesman said: "There's still time for the DUP and executives to get back to Stormont and we urge them to do so because the people of Northern Ireland deserve a fully functioning and locally elected executive which can respond to the issues facing the communities there."