Heaton-Harris set to outline plans to further delay Assembly election

The DUP collapsed the devolved executive last February in protest at Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol.

Haulage lorry at Belfast Port (Liam McBurney/PA) (PA Archive)

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is set to outline plans to further delay a fresh Assembly election in the region.

Several deadlines for the calling of a snap poll have come and gone amid the ongoing powersharing impasse at Stormont.

After the latest one passed on January 19, the Government assumed a legal responsibility to hold an election within 12 weeks.

With little prospect of an imminent return to devolution in Belfast, Mr Heaton-Harris is expected to signal an intent to again extend the timeframe for calling an election.

The DUP collapsed the devolved executive last February in protest at Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol, and the party has made clear it will not lift its block on powersharing until radical changes are made to the contentious Irish Sea trading arrangements.

The EU and UK are engaged in intensive negotiations amid mounting speculation that a deal is on the cards to reduce the red tape on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

A deal between London and Brussels would not necessarily lead to the return of powersharing, as the DUP has insisted any agreement that may emerge must meet its tests on removing trade barriers if it is to countenance re-entering Stormont.

On Wednesday, the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Northern Ireland Protocol is lawful, following a challenge brought by a collective of unionists and Brexiteers.

Unionists have interpreted the judgment as confirmation that the protocol has overridden a key plank of the 1800 Acts of Union that formed the United Kingdom.

Civil servants are currently running public services in Northern Ireland in the absence of elected ministers. They have taken the reins at a time when Stormont is facing a financial overspend running to hundreds of millions of pounds.

Mr Heaton-Harris will outline his plans at a roundtable meeting with Stormont leaders on Thursday and will also table a written ministerial statement at Westminster.

Stormont’s financial problems are set to feature significantly at the meeting with the main parties.

In the absence of devolution, the responsibility for setting a budget for the coming financial year lies with the Northern Ireland Secretary.

In January, the parties were asked to meet Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Mr Heaton-Harris in Belfast to discuss the protocol deadlock.

However, Sinn Fein did not take part after party president Mary-Lou McDonald was not invited, and the SDLP declined to take part in protest at the exclusion of Ms McDonald.

It is understood Ms McDonald has been invited to Thursday’s meeting with Mr Heaton-Harris.