Jeffrey Donaldson MP suggests he'll block election of a Stormont speaker (or else he'll throw his dummy out of the pram again) unless Britain suspends the post-Brexit trade protocol.
Jeffrey Donaldson MP: explains the Brexit Sea Border and the reason as to why we have the NI protocol to protect North.
BELFAST - The (un)Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) may block the election of a speaker for the NI Assembly, opening a new avenue of obstruction that would shut down the region's newly elected legislature.
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson MP said his party's 24 other lawmakers would appear at Parliament Buildings when the 90-seat assembly convenes for the first time on Friday - but may well stop proceedings once they sign the registration book. Signing in allows newly elected members to start completing their £55,000 base salaries.
When asked on Wednesday whether the DUP would nominate one of its members to serve as the assembly's neutral speaker, the next essential item on the agenda, Donaldson said his party might block a candidate from any party.
Donaldson suggested he would order the speaker's election to be blocked unless the British government in London meets DUP demands for the post-Brexit trade protocol to be unilaterally abandoned. "Obviously I'm waiting to hear what the government have to say," Donaldson told BBC Radio Ulster.
The assembly cannot legally operate without a speaker. Power-sharing between the British unionist and Irish nationalist blocs - a central goal of the U.K. region's 1998 peace accord - requires both sides to agree on a speaker before electing a cross-community government.
Until Wednesday, most observers had expected the DUP to permit the election of a Stormont speaker - particularly because the party was likely was likely to fill the role as second-largest in the chamber. Sinn Féin, the biggest Irish nationalist party, had held the speaker's chair since 2020 but the incumbent didn't contest last week's election, when Sinn Féin overtook the DUP for the first ever time.
Only seven of the coalition's 10 positions remain filled following the DUP's decision in February to withdraw from the top post of first minister, a move that also forced out Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill as deputy first minister. Another minister, Nichola Mallon, last week narrowly failed to retain her assembly seat.
None of the ministeral survivors - three DUP, two Sinn Féin and one each from the moderate Ulster Unionists and cross-community Alliance Party - has the power to take new decisions. As a result, the North of Ireland is unable to spend more than £300 million provided by the U.K. Treasury.
Reflecting the DUP's isolation, other party leaders all met Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney during his visit on Wednesday to Belfast. But Donaldson skipped face-to-face contact in favour of a phone call.
"We want the executive up and running, so we should all go back in and deal with the Protocol," said Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie, whose party wants checks on British goods arriving at NI ports to be reformed and reduced, not removed. "We believe having a government that can argue the case on the protocol is the way to do business, whereas the DUP believe that having no government is the way to do business."
Sinn Féin’s O'Neill, who would become first minister if the DUP relents, accused Donaldson of "punishing society" by blocking government spending on households' soaring utility bills and the North of Ireland’s medical waiting lists, the worst in the U.K.
In Dublin, Prime Minister Michael Martin posted a video calling for Britain to keep negotiating with the European Commission, not to reject the EU's proposed reforms to the protocol's operation as U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced Tuesday night.
Follow these links to find out more information on this story: Jamie Bryson has said power-sharing in NI is finished for a long time to come
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