Secretary of State to hold talks with NI political parties

Karen Bradley is due to meet with Northern Ireland political parties in attempt to restore talks to revive devolution.

The Secretary of State is to meet with the main political parties in Northern Ireland on Thursday.

Both Sinn Fein and the DUP will have separate meetings with Karen Bradley in Belfast, as Mrs Bradley continues to consider ways to revive devolution.

Northern Ireland has been without a properly functioning powersharing government for almost 16 months due to the bitter stand-off between the two main parties.

Negotiations to restore the institutions have effectively been on ice since Valentine's Day, when the talks broke up in acrimonious circumstances amid claim and counter claim about a proposed deal to break the impasse.

The Northern Ireland Executive has not sat for over a year. Credit: PressEye

Speaking ahead of the talks, Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O'Neill reiterated her view that the DUP's confidence and supply agreement with the UK government was preventing Mrs Bradley taking definitive action.

DUP leader Arlene Foster insisted Sinn Fein was the only one of Stormont's five main parties standing in the way of an immediate restoration of powersharing.

Mrs O'Neill said: "I will be telling the British Secretary of State that we need the powersharing institutions back up and running and there is a huge deal of frustration within the wider community at the unacceptable delay in restoring the Executive due to the British Government's pact with the DUP."

Mrs Foster downplayed the significance of Thursday's meeting with Mrs Bradley.

"This is a routine meeting with the Secretary of State," she said.

"I am glad she is meeting all the parties and I hope she will recognise that four of the five main parties would restore devolution immediately. There is only one party which has placed barriers and preconditions in the path of returning local decision making to Northern Ireland."