Sinn Fein calls on Dublin and London to plan for Stormont revival as SDLP leader says 'I take full blame for results'

She said there now needed to be an urgent meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference to plot a route to restore the Assembly.

“We suspected from early on that we would do well,” she told RTE.

“But obviously we have gone on to have a momentous election result.

“We haven’t had powersharing now for a year-and-a-half.

“The DUP walked away because they said they wanted to influence the Protocol discussions and negotiations.

“Those negotiations are now complete, so there is no rhyme nor reason for them to stay out...

“I am now calling on both governments, as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, the Irish Government and the British Government, to come together to establish a meeting of the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference to come up with a plan for the restoration of the Assembly.

Alliance leader Naomi Long said: “We have argued in this election that what we need is Stormont working again.

“But the message from those who have not voted is also strong. The nationalist turnout is much stronger, often 10-15% higher than in predominantly unionist areas.

“That should cause unionism concerns because if they are not motivating their people by this kind of negative campaign they have been running, then they need to think long and hard about what will motivate their voters to come out and vote for them.

“Certainly when I was at the doors at constituencies right across Northern Ireland, unionist voters were saying very clearly to me that even if they weren’t voting Alliance, they weren’t voting DUP because they felt the DUP had let them down and not going in and doing the jobs they were elected to do.”

Alliance MLA Eoin Tennyson meanwhile said: “Almost 75% of people who cast their first preference votes voted for parties who want to get back to work and I think it is time the DUP reflect on that, listen to what the public are telling them and move on.”

As for the SDLP, MP Claire Hanna told the BBC: “We are turning around years, possibly decades, of failure to modernise, and that requires all hands on deck.

"A different leader couldn’t have got the DUP back into government, a different leader couldn’t have really matched the financial resources of other parties.”

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said he took responsibility for the results, saying: “I blame nobody else.

“I have been politics since my teens, I got involved to change society, I wanted to work for the people of Derry, to change the country and bring about a new Ireland, that job still goes on.

“I have no interest whatsoever in titles or positions, if I thought the right course of action was to step down I would do it in a heartbeat.

“The reality is though I don’t think there is a better option and we have to continue on and continue for the future.

“We are not unaware of how difficult this is but we are not giving up.”