Doug Beattie: 'Depressing' outlook for Northern Irish politics - and government's eyes are being drawn elsewhere

The Ulster Unionist Party leader said there has been “absolutely no movement” as he emerged from meeting with Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris.

“[There is] absolutely no movement whatsoever, and nothing has changed, so 2023 ended with no deal, 2024 has started with no deal,” he said.

“We will now move into a place where the Secretary State will probably lay primary legislation next week in order to show how we’re going to govern Northern Ireland going forward without a devolved government.

“The door of course will always stay open to get us back in but from what I was hearing there (there is) absolutely no movement whatsoever. The £3.3 billion stays on the table, but that’s only linked in to the restoration of devolved government and if we don’t have that then we’re not going to have a £3.3 billion.”

He said they asked to “decouple the public sector pay money away from the negotiations” before the public sector workers’ strike on Thursday.

But he said Mr Heaton-Harris “pretty much says he can’t do that, or won’t do that”.

“But the bottom line is, he’s not going to do that,” he said.

“So we will go into strikes and then we will see where we get to next week.

“Depressing in many ways, I guess, but the mood music is changing, and the geopolitical things going on in the world are overtaking what’s happening here in Northern Ireland and we’re not going to move forward.”

This is likely an allusion to the tit-for-tat attacks between western powers and Houthi rebels, backed by Iran.

The Yemeni-based rebels have attacked western shipping in the Suez Canal corridor, promoting airstrikes from the UK and USA, followed by renewed attacks on shipping.

The hostilities are linked to the carnage in Gaza, with Iran having long been a key supporter of anti-Israeli fundamentalist forces in the region.