'Political pantomime' must end now that talks have concluded: Robbie Butler

Mr Butler, the Ulster Unionist deputy leader, has urged DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to “do the right thing” and restore the Stormont Executive.

"We are having this political pantomime at the moment, and in reality a decision needs to be made,” Mr Butler said.

"The legislation has been written – it is not changing. The SIs (statutory instruments) have been written and they’re not changing, and I think this is an internal moment for the DUP, I don’t think it’s anything external at all, and I would urge my constituency colleague, Jeffrey Donaldson, to do the right thing”.

Mr Butler told the BBC: "I am more and more convinced there are people and agitators who are just intent on ending power-sharing. They don’t want Stormont back and that is their ultimate game.

"It’s not about the [Windsor] Framework, it’s about ending the Good Friday Agreement, and it is time for those of courage to stand up and call them out and actually put people first".

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said it is "unconscionable" that workers in Northern Ireland will be left "in the lurch" over pay parity demands due to a failure to restore power-sharing.

She said there will always be "a battle a day with the Tories as regards finances" but it is more effectively pursued from within a functioning Stormont executive.

Mrs McDonald said it was now clear that negotiations on the Northern Ireland Protocol and the Windsor Framework over Northern Ireland's place within the UK internal market are now over.

"So it's over to the DUP and Jeffrey Donaldson, who, by the way, himself acknowledged some days ago, a week ago, that the tipping point had arrived, that it was now a moment for a decision, that we have this window - and we are simply asking the DUP to step through that window now, make that right decision," she told RTE.

Ms McDonald added: "It's unconscionable that we go into Christmas and beyond and leave those workers and others in the lurch."