Northern Ireland Protocol and Stormont talks: ​UUP and Alliance say: ‘negotiations are over’

Just before Christmas, Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris said talks aimed at restoring devolved government were over. However DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson responded that there was still not a "basis to deliver the financial stability Northern Ireland needs".

But tonight saw a UUP spokesman claim once again that negotiations have finished.

“The All-Party talks before Christmas brought to an end the negotiations between the Government and DUP," he said. "It also brought forward a new financial package of £3.3bn to help stabilise and transform public service. Included in this was around £600m to deal with the public pay pressures.

“The Ulster Unionist Party made it clear then, and again when we met the Secretary of State in early January, that any pay deal should be delivered now and should not form part of the negotiations.”

The party suggested that Monday’s talks will focus on the need to extend the deadline for Assembly elections if there is no devolved assembly by the statutory deadline of 18 January, he added.

They suggested a hybrid form of decision making between the Northern Ireland Civil service and the Northern Ireland Office may soon arise – instead of joint authority with Dublin. The UUP will continue to oppose the NI Protocol while looking to “maximise the opportunities contained within the Windsor Framework” in a devolved assembly, they added.

Like the UUP, an Alliance Party spokeswoman also claimed that negotiations ended last year.

“The negotiations around the Windsor Framework are concluded – that was the clear message from the Government in December," she said.

“We have the potential of the £3.3 billion financial package available to a new Executive, which will not solve all our problems, but would provide a strong platform for any restored Executive to begin to work through the challenges ahead, including addressing public sector pay pressures.

“The focus and attention needs to be on the DUP, which is stopping an Executive being formed. That’s where the pressure needs to be.”