Alliance deputy leader raises possibility of party staying out of government after 2027 election
The deputy leader of Alliance has said the party wants to see either a change in Stormont’s structures or a change in rivals’ attitudes before going into government again.
Eoin Tennyson had been responding to a question from UUP MP Robin Swann in Westminster’s NI Affairs Committee today, where the discussion was all about potential reforms to the way the Province’s government works.
Mr Tennyson was asked if reform was a “prerequisite” for taking up ministerial posts after the May 2027 Assembly election.
He replied: “We haven't sat our manifesto for the next election, and we will have a detailed discussion as a party in terms of whether there will be prerequisites for us to go back in.
"But I think it is very clear, given on how dysfunctional the Executive has been over the past two years, that we would not be returning to the Executive without either significant change in attitude from the two largest parties or some change to the structures or at least a process to get there.”
The absence of Alliance could pose potential problems because the party has been the go-to pick to take charge of the Department of Justice ever since it was set up in 2010 (apart from a brief period in 2016/17 when independent unionist Claire Sugden held the ministry).
Unlike other ministries, the justice minister is selected on the basis of a cross-community vote, not via the d’Hondt method.
Mr Tennyson also addressed unionists’ use of a petition of concern on Monday in Stormont.
"We set out very clearly earlier this year that our participation in the Executive should not be taken for granted,” he said.
"We have an absurd situation at the moment where, when a cross-community vote is called in the Assembly, the votes of genuine cross-community parties are discounted from that process.
“To take the example of minimum major criminal responsibility: a valid petition was lodged by 30 members, and that means that the vote of minister and her own colleagues – the minister who was actually bringing the original legislation – is not counted in that process.
"Now that is a perversion of democracy and an affront to the rights, not of my party, but of the people that I represent, who are effectively and treated like second-class citizens by their own political institutions.”