Stormont deadline: Assembly recalled in bid to restore executive

The Stormont Assembly will meet at noon as the deadline approaches for the restoration of the power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland.

Sinn Féin and Alliance backed a motion to bring back assembly members to debate the cost-of-living crisis.

They are calling on the DUP to support the election of a speaker and stop blocking the formation of an executive.

But there is no indication the political deadlock will be broken before Friday’s 00:01 BST deadline.

That marks 24 weeks since May’s election.

Under the law, if the deadline is missed, the Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris must call an assembly election within 12 weeks.

He has consistently said in recent weeks he will call the election, rather than try to delay it or avoid it with fresh legislation at Westminster.

The most likely date for a poll is 15 December.

If, as seems likely, the executive is not restored by Friday’s deadline, caretaker ministers at Stormont will be removed from office.

They have been in post, but with only limited powers, since the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) withdrew from the executive in February over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The protocol is the trading arrangement, negotiated during the Brexit talks, which means goods coming into Northern Ireland from Great Britain are subject to checks.

A political vacuum is looming in Northern Ireland.

It seems set to enter a period without an assembly, without ministers, and with senior civil servants left at the helm.

A pre-Christmas election, if called, will partly fill the void, but there is a risk it could make things worse rather than better.

All eyes are on the Northern Ireland Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris to see whether he will call a December poll.

A decision could come quickly, perhaps even on Friday.

The assembly is Northern Ireland’s devolved legislature and the executive is a group of ministers chosen from its members and based on the strengths of the different parties.

It is designed to ensure the unionist and nationalist parties share power.

The recall of the assembly is likely to offer the parties an opportunity to outline their competing positions on the current stalemate.

In theory, they are due to discuss a motion on the cost-of-living crisis, but the likelihood is that procedural rules mean it will not be debated.

In a letter to assembly members, Speaker Alex Maskey told them: “If the assembly is unable to elect a speaker and deputy speakers, it cannot proceed to do any of the other business including the appointment of ministers and the debate on the motion.”

The DUP, the largest unionist party at Stormont, has repeatedly blocked the election of a new speaker.

The party has said it will not allow business as usual until the protocol is radically changed.

The rules state that the Northern Ireland secretary must call an election “as soon as is practicable”.

That does not mean he must call an election on 28 October, contrary to what he has repeatedly said.

The rules do say the election must be held within 12 weeks, which would mean the second assembly election in the space of a year.

However previous deadlines in Northern Ireland have been adjusted by emergency legislation at Westminster.

Read more: Q&A: Is Northern Ireland going back to the polls?

The protocol is part of the UK-EU Brexit deal which keeps Northern Ireland aligned with some EU trade rules.

This was designed to ensure goods could move freely across the Irish land border, from the UK into an EU member state, the Republic of Ireland.

It created a new trade border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, something the EU has accepted is causing difficulties for many businesses.

Unionists also say it is undermining Northern Ireland’s place in the UK and is contrary to the spirit of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the peace deal which set up power sharing in Northern Ireland.

Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill has called for a “joint approach” between London and Dublin if devolution cannot be salvaged.

On Wednesday, Mr Heaton-Harris held a round of talks with the main political parties to try to avoid calling another election.