“Heel dragging” on key priorities at Stormont could impact on the Alliance Party’s future participation in the Executive, its leader Naomi Long has warned.
Addressing the party’s annual conference on Saturday, Long criticised the instability of Northern Ireland’s powersharing government and the “cost of division” on public services.
“We can no longer be in a situation where parties threaten the stability of our institutions because they will not take responsibility for setting a budget,” she told delegates at a Belfast hotel.
When institutions collapse, it “is ordinary people who pay the price”, she said.
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“It means patients waiting longer for treatment, families struggling with rising costs, and businesses and investors uncertain about the future.”
Long, who also serves as Stormont Minister for Justice, has led Alliance for almost 10 years.
Now the third-largest party in the Executive, its “continued participation in the Executive cannot and should not be taken for granted”, said Long.
Remaining in Stormont required “compromise” with other parties, she acknowledged.
“But if we reach a point where our ability to deliver on key priorities is stymied by vetoes and frustrated by heel-dragging, then rest assured, I would be advocating a change in direction,” she said.
Earlier, there was standing room only for guest speaker Andy Burnham, Labour’s Greater Manchester mayor who is tipped as a possible successor to UK prime minister Keir Starmer.
Burnham called for an overhaul of the UK parliamentary system, which he said had not worked for Northern Ireland or any region “outside of London and the southeast”.
He told the conference it was “code red for Westminster” and said “big change is needed”.
Long, a former MP for East Belfast, expressed her support for Burnham’s campaign to reform Westminster.
She also said she would not stand by as progress was frustrated in Northern Ireland.
“As someone who grew up during the Troubles, I will never take our progress for granted, but equally I will also not stand by while others rest on their laurels or frustrate progress,” she said.
The next Assembly elections will take place in May 2027 and Long rejected claims that Alliance’s vote had “plateaued”.
She said the party had proved its critics wrong to become the third-largest at Stormont and would not “entertain their counsel of doom”.
“Of course, there will always be those who seek to talk down our achievements or suggest that our progress is unsustainable,” she said.
“What they have failed to grasp every time is that Alliance success isn’t merely a party political phenomenon: it reflects the positive and progressive change happening outside rooms like these, in our communities.”
Long was applauded when she said the party would not travel to Washington for St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
She described US president Donald Trump as someone who “engages in race-baiting” and who calls women journalists “piggy”.
“As someone who believes in democracy, freedom and peace, why would I want to spend time with someone who threatens the global order and stability?” she said. “Trump may not have standards; we do.”
Long said that politics locally and globally was increasingly “defined by fear”.
She claimed other parties sought to “distract from their poor record of delivery by keeping people afraid and divided”.
It was important for her party to “speak up and speak out for” their values at home and abroad, she said.
Long warned against viewing “every international conflict through the lens of our local divisions” in the North.
“We are in government not because it’s easy, but because it matters. Hope in our politics as a force for good will be built through delivery.”
