Talks scheduled for Monday - but the Alliance Party says the negotiations are over and DUP must stop 'drift'

However, there appears little prospect of political progress next week – and the Alliance Party say the negotiations between the government and the DUP are over.

Alliance MP Stephen Farry told the News Letter: "The negotiations around the Windsor Framework are concluded – that was the clear message from the Government in December.

“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.

“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, to stop the sense of drift which is currently happening”.

In today’s News Letter, DUP deputy leader Gavin Robinson says Alliance “foolishly lined up with nationalists and Brussels, not to raise an alarm that the delicate balance of powersharing had tilted too far away from unionists, but to call for the ‘rigorous implementation’ of the Protocol”.

He also reiterated the party’s aim in the “detailed and painstaking” negotiations. The East Belfast MP said: “By getting back to a place where goods moving from GB to NI flow unimpeded through the UK Internal Market system, unionists will be able to see that their concerns are being addressed. It was not right that within the UK, businesses and traders who posed no risk of criminality, smuggling or disease risk had their goods subject to inspections”.

Unlike talks before Christmas – which focused on Northern Ireland’s finances – there will not be roundtable discussions between the leaders and Mr Heaton-Harris. The government is seeking to put pressure on Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to come to a decision quickly on a deal the Prime Minister described this week as a “very good basis” for the restoration of Stormont.

A Northern Ireland Office spokesperson said: "The Secretary of State is meeting with leaders of the Northern Ireland parties in advance of the 18 January deadline to restore the Northern Ireland Executive. He is doing everything within his power to ensure the return of the Executive".