Secretary of State postpones Northern Ireland elections for at least six weeks

The Secretary of State confirmed last week that Northern Ireland will not have Assembly elections before Christmas.

Last week, Chris Heaton Harris fell short of setting a date for the new year.

On Wednesday, he told the House of Commons he plans to extend the deadline for calling an election, potentially by 12 weeks.

That means it could be mid-April by the time Northern Ireland voters go to the polls.

Potential dates for poll:

• Currently there is a legal requirement for an election 12 weeks after October 28.The earliest poll could be on December 8 with the latest January 19.

• With a six week extension, the window comes in on 8 December.Earliest poll would be January 19 and latest March 2.

• A second six-week extension would kick in on January 19. Earliest poll on 2 March and latest on 13 April

Mr Heaton Harris told MPs it is to allow for time to hold talks on the Protocol.

“There is... a legitimate and deep concern about the functioning of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

"This is felt across Northern Ireland and very strongly indeed in the Unionist community.

“The one thing that everyone agrees on is that we must try and find a way through this current impasse - where I have a legal duty to call an election that few want and everyone tells me will change nothing.

“Thus, I will be introducing legislation to provide a short, straightforward extension to the period for Executive formation - extending the current period by 6 weeks to 8th December, with the potential of a further six week extension to 19th January if necessary.

“This aims to create the time and space needed for talks between the UK Government and the EU Commission to develop and for the Northern Ireland Parties to work together to restore the devolved institutions as soon as possible."

Existing legislation gave the Stormont parties almost six months to form an Executive following the last election in May, which saw Sinn Fein emerge as the largest party for the first time.

The deadline to establish a new executive lapsed on October 28, at which point the Government assumed a legal responsibility to hold a fresh poll within 12 weeks.

A DUP boycott of the devolved institutions, in protest at Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol, has prevented an executive being formed in Belfast.

The region's largest unionist party has made clear it will not countenance a return to power sharing until the protocol's economic barriers on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland are scrapped.

Negotiations between London and Brussels aimed at securing changes to the protocol are continuing, with both sides talking up the prospect of a deal.

If a deal on the protocol was secured that convinced the DUP to return to a devolved executive, the Government would likely come under further pressure to ditch plans for an election altogether.

The UK and Irish governments are both keen to avoid a scenario where Stormont remains in limbo next April when the 25th anniversary of the historic Good Friday peace agreement will be marked.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told the Northern Ireland Secretary that the people of Northern Ireland need a "solution that sees the institutions restored on the basis that Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom".

Earlier, his party colleague Edwin Poots said insisted a cut to MLA pay would have absolutely "no influence whatsoever" on his party's stance.

Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O'Neill said the uncertainty over an election was not good enough.

"What we now have are new deadlines, multiple deadlines, in which he (Mr Heaton-Harris) may or may not call an election," she told reporters at Stormont.

"So this is not a good enough space for people to be in and I think the fundamental question today has to be around what's next?

"What do the British Government intend to do to find an agreed way forward on the protocol?"

Ms O'Neill questioned why Mr Heaton-Harris had not targeted the pay cut at DUP MLAs who were refusing to engage with the devolved institutions.

She said Northern Ireland was also now facing the prospect of an "unadulterated Tory budget" being imposed on the region.

Alliance Party leader Naomi Long welcomed "clarity" from Mr Heaton-Harris. But she said it has not changed the "pressing need for reform of the institutions".

"As long as any one party can take the institutions hostage, they will," she said.

"Therefore we need reform of the Assembly and Executive to stop that happening, or else we could easily be back in this same situation again in a matter of months."

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said the focus must be on restoring the Stormont institutions.

He added with the prospect of a deal between the UK and EU on the protocol "getting closer every day", that the DUP "has no excuse for continuing their boycott of the Stormont institutions".

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