Sir Robert Buckland comments: Former NI Secretary Villers says there is no role for Dublin in running NI - as Tory MP calls idea 'unacceptable'

Speaking on BBC News NI's The View programme, Sir Robert Buckland was asked if the "old-style direct rule of the past" was off the table.

The Conservative MP replied: "I think so.

"I think anybody who like many of us will have remembered and read and committed parts of the process of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement to memory, will know there is no going back to that previous dispensation.

"That would be to upend 26 years of progress. And that is what is at stake here."

Sir Robert said direct rule would mean "triggering certain aspects of the Good Friday Agreement" and "involvement of the Irish government, ultimately".

Theresa Villiers MP – a former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland – has rejected the idea.

She told the News Letter: “The three strand approach approach is a long-standing and important principle, backed by successive UK governments. It limits the role of the Irish Government and makes it clear that Northern Ireland’s domestic affairs are a matter for the UK only. I therefore don’t agree that the Irish Government should be involved in the governance of Northern Ireland, outside their established role in the north-south bodies established under the BGFA.”

Mrs Villiers backed Sir Robert Buckland in his bid to replace Simon Hoare as chair of the NI Affairs Committee at Westminster.

Tory colleague David Jones, the deputy chair of the European Research Group says its MPs would oppose such a move. The former Welsh Secretary told the News Letter: “Any involvement by the Irish government in the administration of Northern Ireland would be unacceptable to most, if not all, Conservative colleagues”.

The Northern Ireland Office has been contacted for its view on Sir Robert’s comments, which come as the Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris has invited Northern Ireland's five largest parties for one-to-one talks at Hillsborough Castle on Monday.