DUP blocks third attempt to elect Stormont speaker

A third attempt to restore Stormont’s power-sharing institutions through the election of an Assembly speaker has failed.

As expected, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) blocked the nomination of speaker and deputy speaker over its ongoing protest at the Northern Ireland protocol.

No Assembly business can proceed until the posts are filled.

The DUP’s “continued boycott” of Stormont was branded “unforgivable” by Sinn Féin vice-president and first minister designate Michelle O’Neill.

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She accused the party of “punishing the public” by denying them a government to fund essential public services, a move she described as “totally unacceptable”.

The North has been without a functioning Assembly since May’s elections.

“The DUP are the only party that are blocking and preventing the Executive being formed, preventing the Executive meeting that would allow us to distribute money to workers and families,” Ms O’Neill told the chamber.

She said that she listened to DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson in a radio interview earlier this morning, “talking about how everything is `fine and dandy’, and about how Stormont `has the budgets to do the business’ “.

“That is not true,” she said.

The controversial protocol Bill, which aims to scrap parts of the post-Brexit trade deal, is making its way through Westminster and is due to come before the House of Lords in the autumn.

Mr Donaldson has indicated he is unable to provide a timetable for his party’s return to Stormont until a new UK prime minister is elected and can provide assurances about the Bill.

DUP party colleague Brian Kingston told Wednesday’s sitting that he regarded the latest recall as “stunt politics” and said the protocol had caused a “deep fracture which will continue to grow until it is dealt with”.

“These proceedings are not a genuine attempt by the parties opposite to restore the political institutions, rather they demonstrate a wilful disregard for the views of unionists and the principle of power-sharing itself in Northern Ireland,” he said.

A motion tabled by the SDLP on the cost-of-living crisis had led to the recall.

The party formed an official opposition last month and opposition leader Matthew O’Toole said the DUP’s position — in delaying its return until the election of new UK prime minister — was “preposterous”.

The DUP had previously said it would take a “graduated and cautious” approach to restoring Stormont as protocol legislation is passed in Westminster — Mr O’Toole argued this had already happened following the Bill’s swift passage through the Commons.

He accused Mr Donaldson’s party of acting in a “frankly unconscionable” manner during the unprecedented economic pressures.

“Are the DUP seriously saying we don’t need a government, that hundreds of millions of pounds can sit unspent at Stormont when people go without support while that cost-of-living crisis bites?”

Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister said there was a straightforward reason why the recall was only a “stunt sitting”.

“That very straightforward reason is the protocol,” he added. He said too many MLAs did not want to face “reality” that the protocol was incompatible with Northern Ireland’s constitutional position as an “integral part of the United Kingdom”.

The Ulster Unionist Party’s Mike Nesbitt and the SDLP’s Patsy McGlone were nominated for the speaker role.

Prior to the recall, Mr Nesbitt urged political leaders to meet “quietly and privately” to resolve their differences, saying the latest bid to restore devolution was “not going to go anywhere”.

The DUP continues to link its return to Stormont with the progress of the Bill in London, arguing that the protocol as it stands creates an economic border in the Irish Sea that is unacceptable to unionism.

Earlier, Mr Donaldson said he could not set out a timetable for his party’s return to devolved power-sharing at Stormont.

He told BBC Radio Ulster: “We need to know where that new prime minister is going with the protocol Bill. We need to know is that prime minister going to reopen negotiations with the European Union, and what might that mean.

“How quickly are we going to see progress towards the solution that we need on the protocol, because that’s what I need to see happening.

“Can I, right now, look you in the eye and say: ‘Here is the timetable’? Of course I can’t, because I don’t know at this stage who the prime minister is going to be, I don’t know at this stage what line they are going to take.”

Mr Donaldson, who also branded the recall sitting a “stunt”, declined to say whether he would prefer Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss as the next prime minister. “That’s a matter for the Conservative Party,” he said.