Stormont: 'the real work starts now' Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak has met up with the Ministers in Stormont's newly-formed Executive.

Mr Sunak was greeted by First Minister Michelle O'Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly as he visited Parliament Buildings.

Earlier he said the new funding deal for Northern Ireland is "significant and generous", after the newly formed Executive called for urgent discussions on long-term funding stability to deliver public services.

The Prime Minister said: "The funding package that we put on the table before Christmas has, I think, been widely recognised as being significant and generous."

He said it is focused on "long-term sustainability, ensuring that Northern Ireland has the funding it needs, not just for today to deal with the immediate challenges, but it is on a path to be able to provide high-quality public services into the future".

Mr Sunak insisted the priority now for leaders at Stormont should be delivering on the "day-to-day" concerns of people in Northern Ireland, not "constitutional change".

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was also at Stormont.

He told reporters, it is a "very positive day"

Ms O'Neill and Ms Little-Pengelly welcomed the Taoiseach to the Executive table, before Ms Little-Pengelly said she looked forward to building a constructive relationship with the Irish head, "one based on mutual respect", adding as the closest neighbour, it "makes sense for us to have a constructive relationship - we haven't always had in the past".

Mr Varadkar said he was glad to be there, adding there were "various times over the past year or two I didn't think this day would happen".

"It's great that the institutions are back up and running again, we want the Executive to be a success and to last, and keen to help in any way we can but not to interfere, but definitely to help, and keen to see the North South Ministerial Council up and running again as soon as possible, and the British Irish Council as well of course," he said.