Northern Ireland's main political parties meet with new Shadow Secretary of State

Northern Ireland's main political parties are taking part in meetings with the new shadow secretary of state across the day.

Hilary Benn is taking part in his first visit to the region this week since he was appointed to the role last month.

The visit comes as the Stormont Assembly remains collapsed amid DUP protest action against internal UK trade barriers created by Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol.

The party says the framework deal struck by the EU and the UK to reform the protocol does not sufficiently address its concerns and has made clear it will not accept a return to devolution until the Government provides further assurances, by way of legislation, over Northern Ireland's place in the UK internal market.

Talks between the DUP and the Government have been ongoing over the summer.

One of the main parts of the framework - the green/red lane system for the movement of goods - became operational at Northern Ireland ports on Sunday.

Mr Benn started his meetings at Stormont on Tuesday with a sit-down with Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O'Neill and North Belfast MP John Finucane.

Discussions around getting the Stormont Assembly restored dominated shadow secretary of state Hilary Benn's meeting with Sinn Fein.

North Belfast MP John Finucane said he and party vice-president Michelle O'Neill has a "very positive and constructive meeting" with Labour MP Mr Benn at Parliament Buildings.

"Top of the agenda in our message to him was the need to restore the assembly, to restore the executive, to have ministers in place at the job they were elected to do over a year ago," he told media.

"We are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, we have a health service that demands action to begin to tackle the crisis in our waiting lists and the many other problems in our public services.

"But we were also keen to stress that we don't want to miss the opportunities of the economic potential that we now have here. We also have a very significant and sizeable delegation coming from America in a couple of weeks led by the US president's special envoy Joe Kennedy.

"We were keen to stress that we need ministers in place, we need an Executive to grasp the opportunities with both hands. We need to be working together. We are keen to work with all of the other parties to create jobs, to boost the economy as well as tackling the problems that we all know we have in health, education and public services."

Mr Finucane added: "People voted in an historic election over 18 months ago now, and the very least that they deserve is to have ministers in place, doing the job they should be doing. I don't think there is any excuse for the DUP to be remaining out of government... they need to get back in and respect the outcome of last year's election without delay."

Mr Finucane said the government's controversial new Legacy Act was also discussed during his party's meeting with Mr Benn.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said his party is continuing to engage with the UK Government over its concerns around post-Brexit trading arrangements.

He was speaking to media alongside East Belfast DUP MP Gavin Robinson following their meeting with the shadow Secretary of State.

Sir Jeffrey also insisted that a meeting of his party on Thursday is a "routine meeting planned in advance".

"It will be dealing with routine party business," he said.

"Our discussions with the government are ongoing. There remain issues that need to be resolved. We will continue that engagement until we get to an outcome.

"We are not yet in the space where we have an outcome, where we have got a solution to the very real problems that have been created by the Northern Ireland Protocol, that are harming our economy and that fail to respect our place within the United Kingdom and it's internal market."

Sir Jeffrey said they have "made some progress" in discussions with the government, but said there is "further to go if we are to get to a place where we believe we have got what we need to both respect and protect Northern Ireland's place within the United Kingdom and its internal market, and we'll keep working at that until we get that solution".

Alliance Party leader Naomi Long praised Mr Benn for his level of engagement with and knowledge of issues in Northern Ireland.

She said the focus of their conversation was around efforts to resurrect the Stormont Assembly.

"I was very impressed both with his levels of interest and also his levels of knowledge. I would have expected nothing else and it was a very good meeting."

She said she hoped future meetings with Mr Benn will take place in the context of a functioning Assembly.

"This current situation where we have no Assembly, no devolution is just not a sustainable position for Northern Ireland to be in, and it is not good for the people who we represent, who are languishing on waiting lists, who are struggling with their finances, who can't access childcare and who are facing all of the multiple demands and challenges that everyone else faces but doing it without the support of the people they elected to take on these challenges on their behalf."

On Monday Mr Benn met with personnel from the Wave Trauma Centre, which supports Troubles victims and relatives of those bereaved, as well as making a visit to Queen's University Belfast.

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