Parliament clears bill to prevent future collapse of Stormont
The Bill will allow for the NI Assembly to continue without a functioning Executive for at least six months
A bill to prevent the future collapse of Stormont has passed its final stage at Westminster.
The Northern Ireland (Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern) Bill will allow for the Northern Ireland Assembly to continue without a functioning Executive for at least six months.
Its passing has lessened the likelihood of an early election as one of its provisions states the Secretary of State cannot call an election for six weeks after the resignation of the first or deputy first minister.
It comes after NI was plunged into a fresh political crisis last week when the DUP withdrew Paul Givan as first minister in protest at the post-Brexit NI Protocol.
The step also automatically removed Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill from her position as deputy first minister and leaves NI without a functioning Executive.
Yesterday (Monday) evening, MPs passed amendments to the Bill from the House of Lords, one of which allows for the legislation to be applied retrospectively, which will cover Mr Givan's resignation last week.
The Bill is expected to receive royal assent later this week.
Government Minister, Conor Burns, has said NI needs a “stable governance" and urged the DUP to return to the Stormont power sharing Executive.
He made the remarks as the legislation passed its final stage at Westminster.
Addressing DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson at Westminster, Mr Burns said: "Our message very strongly to the party of the member opposite is we would rather he returned his party to the Executive, a stable Executive, stable governance, is in the interests of the people who matter most in all of this, the people of Northern Ireland."
Mr Smith said: "Having worked with so many others across this House and beyond to get Stormont back up and running two years ago, last Thursday was deeply depressing."
Sir Jeffrey said amendments to the Bill will be "irrelevant" if the issues which have led to the impasse are not resolved.
He added: "I would love to see a resolution in the next six weeks because I can assure you if that happens, we will not be found wanting in terms of reinstating those institutions and restoring ministers to office."
Sir Jeffrey went on to criticise the European Union for its approach to the protocol, telling MPs: "If the European Union insisted that your constituents' personal belongings are searched every time you move from one part of the United Kingdom to another, would you hear from your constituents about that? Might they have cause for complaint?
"And yet that is what my constituents will be subjected to if the European Union has its way and the full and vigorous implementation of the protocol is taken forward."
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