Government's election pressure ignores its own responsibility for Northern Ireland protocol

When Chris Heaton-Harris was appointed NI Secretary, with Steve Baker as junior minister, most of the reaction revolved around their ERG membership and supposed bias toward unionism.

That commentary has so far turned out to be wildly misguided. Mr Heaton-Harris and Mr Baker have taken care to avoid offending nationalists and done little to make unionists’ lives easier, or give them encouragement that their interests are being protected.

Yesterday, the secretary of state announced that a prospective election will be delayed for up to twelve weeks, while, in the meantime, MLAs’ salaries will be cut by a third. These measures are designed to load pressure onto the DUP to restore the devolved institutions, ahead of negotiations over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Conservative ministers were less inclined to use their powers to persuade Sinn Fein back into the executive when it collapsed Stormont for three years. Indeed, rather than condemn republicans, the former secretary of state, Julian Smith, chose to lecture the DUP for not capitulating earlier to SF’s demands.

The government has lately encouraged the idea that it can do a deal with the EU that will get the executive back up and running.

There are few signs from Brussels though, that its negotiators are prepared to concede anything more than a ‘light touch’ version of the current Irish Sea border. That kind of agreement would not resolve the pressing constitutional issues created by the protocol and it is unlikely to coax the DUP back into the executive.

Conservative ministers should remember that they were responsible for undermining the Union by agreeing a political and economic frontier within their own territory. And Stormont is not operating only because this government has not yet fulfilled its promise to restore the integrity of the UK.