DUP and TUV hit back after Alliance leader Naomi Long calls for end to one party veto over Stormont government

They were speaking after Ms Long called for reforms to stop one party being able to collapse the Stormont government.

Speaking at her party conference on Saturday, she said the fact that the institutions are suspended for at least the third time is “irrefutable evidence that real change is needed”.

Her party's proposals for reform "remove the right of any one party to deny the people of Northern Ireland a government" she added.

In 2017 Sinn Fein collapsed the assembly for three years in protest at the DUP's handling of the RHI renewable energy scheme.

At present it has been suspended for just over a year after the DUP pulled out in protest at the EU customs border in the Irish Sea.

But DUP East Belfast MLA David Brooks accused Alliance of being "clouded by anti-unionist politics" in her proposals.

“Comments from the Alliance Party should be viewed in light of their continued refusal to acknowledge their role in not only defending the Protocol but seeking its turbo-charged implementation," he said. "Anti-unionist politics clouded their vision in the past and people will question whether that has changed.”

TUV leader Jim Allister responded that Alliance made no such proposals during Sinn Fein's three year collapse.

"It is no surprise that the nationalist leaning Alliance Party, which had no such demand during the three year Sinn Fein boycott of Stormont, should be joining the ‘no unionist about the place’ bandwagon," he said.