Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has met Northern Ireland political leaders amid the ongoing powersharing impasse at Stormont.
Mr Sunak held informal talks with senior representatives of the main parties at a hotel near Belfast at the start of his first visit to the region as Prime Minister.
He met all the parties in the same room and spoke to them separately for around 10 to 15 minutes each.
Devolution has been in flux since February when the DUP withdrew its first minister from the ministerial executive in protest at Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol.
Talks between the UK and EU to resolve the impasse over the contentious trading arrangements are continuing with both sides continuing to insist a deal is possible.
The DUP has insisted it will not allow a return to powersharing until radical changes to the protocol are delivered.
The region’s largest unionist party has blocked the formation of a new administration following May’s Assembly election and prevented the Assembly meeting to conduct legislative business as part of its protest over the protocol.
It claims the protocol has undermined Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom by creating economic barriers on trade entering the region from Great Britain.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was among those who took part in Thursday night’s talks.
Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill, who is in line to become first minister of Northern Ireland if devolution is restored, was also present.
Afterwards, Ms O’Neill said: “I was able to put it to him directly that what we need to see is a deal on the protocol, we need to find an agreed way forward, to work with the EU and to get that done speedily because that is the obstacle as we speak in terms of restoring the executive.”
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said it appears from what the Prime Minister told him that there is likely to be an “intensification at the political level” of the talks around the Northern Ireland Protocol.
He called for greater flexibility from the EU, but added that he wants to see action on unionist concerns over the protocol, whether that is delivered by legislation at Westminster or by negotiation with the EU.
We don’t agree with the stand-off at Stormont but we’re not going to see any progress towards having an Assembly restored until the issues around the protocol have been resolved— Naomi Long, Alliance Party
“The outcome must restore Northern Ireland’s place within the UK internal market,” he said.
“I think that is the space that the Prime Minister is in, I think that is what the Prime Minister wants to achieve from this negotiation, he wants to see a situation whereby Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom is respected, that the integrity of the UK internal market is protected, but also that there are reasonable measures that recognise the importance and integrity of the EU’s single market.”
Alliance Party leader Naomi Long welcomed the visit of Prime Minister and urged Government to “step up” over the political crisis in Northern Ireland.
“We don’t agree with the stand-off at Stormont but we’re not going to see any progress towards having an Assembly restored until the issues around the protocol have been resolved,” she said.
“That isn’t something that any of us, Jeffrey Donaldson included, have any influence over whatsoever, that is something that only the Prime Minister and the EU can resolve.”
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said his mind was focused on striking workers.
“They’re working very hard and still not even able to heat their homes in some cases, and we don’t have a Government in this place to deal with that. For me, that is down to the DUP,” he said.
Earlier the local political leaders met with Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris for cross-party talks in Belfast.
One key issue that featured in the discussions in Belfast on Thursday morning was the continued uncertainty over when £600 Treasury-funded energy support payments will be rolled out to householders in Northern Ireland.
Last week, Mr Heaton-Harris cut the pay of MLAs by 27.5% to reflect the fact they are not doing their jobs as legislators.
If a new executive is not formed by January 19, the Government assumes a legal responsibility to call a snap Assembly election by April 13.
On Thursday, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly held face-to-face talks with European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic in Brussels to discuss the protocol deadlock.
The meeting at the Northern Ireland Office in Belfast took place as nurses across Northern Ireland held a strike over pay and conditions.
A similar strike by the Royal College of Nursing in the region in late 2019 was seen as a factor in securing a return to powersharing after a previous political impasse at Stormont.
The latest political discussions took place on the same day a judge in Belfast declared that a former DUP minister’s ill-fated bid to halt protocol checks at Northern Ireland ports was unlawful.
In February, ex-agriculture minister Edwin Poots ordered officials to stop the checks, claiming he required – and did not have – the approval of the wider Stormont executive to continue them.
This move was challenged in the High Court and checks continued pending the outcome of the judicial review.
On Thursday, Justice Colton ruled that Mr Poots had been legally obliged to carry out the checks and that he did not require executive approval to continue them.
The judge said his attempt to halt them was “motivated by political rather than legal considerations”.
On the second day of his visit to Northern Ireland on Friday, the Prime Minister is expected to highlight the UK-wide nature of the Royal Navy’s shipbuilding projects with a visit to a Belfast shipyard.
Speaking ahead of his visit, Mr Sunak said: “Northern Ireland – its people and its future – are rightly at the centre of our shipbuilding ambitions.
“And completing the next generation of our world class Royal Navy Support Ships – to strengthen our security at sea and across the globe – could not have found a better home than in Belfast, once the biggest shipyard in the world, with its proud tradition of skill and expertise.
“The thousands of high value jobs and the skills that are gained from delivering it now will help to lay the foundations of prosperity for tomorrow.”
