Cabinet minister Chris Heaton-Harris gives DUP 10 days to rejoin powersharing before he calls a pre-Christmas election in Northern Ireland amid Brexit turmoil – but he offers hope over ‘tough’ but ‘positive’ talks in Protocol spat with EU
- Chris Heaton-Harris warns Northern Ireland parties they face pre-Xmas election
- Northern Ireland Secretary insists he ‘cannot be clearer’ on 28 October deadline
- He will have to call election if Stormont powersharing not restored by that date
Northern Ireland’s parties were today warned they will face a pre-Christmas election if a power-sharing government isn’t restored in 10 days’ time.
Cabinet minister Chris Heaton-Harris insisted he ‘cannot be clearer’ that he will call an election if a new Northern Ireland Executive isn’t formed at Stormont by 28 October.
The Northern Ireland Secretary said it was a ‘legislative requirement’ for him to send voters to the polls for the second time this year – in order to choose a new Northern Ireland Assembly – if the deadline is missed.
The DUP is currently blocking the functioning of Stormont institutions as part of their protest against post-Brexit trading arrangements, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol.
But the party is under pressure to end their boycott of Stormont while resumed talks between the UK Government and the EU over the Protocol continue.
Mr Heaton-Harris told MPs at Westminster this afternoon that those talks were ‘tough’ but were being conducted in a ‘positive and grown-up fashion’.
Cabinet minister Chris Heaton-Harris insisted he ‘cannot be clearer’ that he will call an election if a new Northern Ireland Executive isn’t formed at Stormont by 28 October
The DUP is currently blocking the functioning of Stormont institutions as part of their protest against post-Brexit trading arrangements, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol
The Northern Ireland Secretary said it was a ‘legislative requirement’ for him to send voters to the polls for the second time this year if the 28 October deadline is missed
Speaking to the House of Commons’ Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, the Northern Ireland Secretary reiterated his warning that he would not hesitate to call a fresh election.
‘If we do not get a reformed Executive by one minute past midnight on 28 October, I will be calling an election,’ Mr Heaton-Harris said.
‘That’s what the law requires me to do and that is what I will be doing.
‘Lots of people do not want that to happen, but it is a legislative requirement.’
The Cabinet minister added he could not ‘see the space’ or ‘a will’ for emergency legislation at Westminster to override the 28 October deadline and avoid a fresh election in Northern Ireland.
‘I discussed it with my Cabinet colleagues this morning, I cannot be clearer – that’s what will happen on 28 October,’ he said.
Mr Heaton-Harris later revealed he would name the date of an election ‘quickly’ after he had called one.
Asked whether it would be 8 or 15 December, which would give a six-week campaigning period for Stormont parties, the Northern Ireland Secretary replied: ‘I’m not going to say yet, but you’re in the right zone.’
But he confirmed the election would be held before Christmas.
The Protocol, which is designed to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, allows Northern Ireland to effectively remain in the EU’s Single Market.
Both the UK Government and Unionists in Northern Ireland have attacked the ‘bureaucratic’ checks being imposed on goods moving across the Irish Sea.
The DUP and other Unionists fear the post-Brexit arrangement has threatened Northern Ireland’s place as part of the UK.
Mr Heaton-Harris revealed resumed talks on solving the Protocol row between London and Brussels had now been continuing for around two to three weeks.
‘They are talks at this point in time. There’s conversations about what a “landing zone” could look like for those talks,’ he told MPs.
Mr Heaton-Harris said Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic were having ‘regular conversations’ about the state of talks, including a chat yesterday.
‘I think everybody is approaching this in a positive and grown-up fashion,’ he added.
‘But just because the mood music has changed, it doesn’t mean the talks are not tough.
‘They are on different areas on which there hasn’t been agreement in the past.’
Mr Heaton-Harris assured MPs that ‘the talks are taking place in very good faith, good humour, with a positive agenda’.
‘The European part in those talks completely recognises how important it is to have an Executive up and running in Northern Ireland as well,’ he continued.
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