Windsor Framework: Sinn Fein and SDLP call for restoration of Assembly following NI Protocol deal

​She said: “I was always very clear that the protections that were secured within the protocol were very necessary, they remain necessary.

“Protecting those things that were working and smoothing out the things that needed to be fixed, that is the position we are standing in this evening.

“All different parties need to sit down at the executive table taking the decisions which impact on people’s lives”.

“There shouldn’t be delays in that. We have a health service in crisis, public sector workers out on the picket line. Where we need to be is making politics work and standing up for the people that we represent collectively and I think that’s where our energies and efforts need to be now.”

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has encouraged political parties to view the deal between the EU and the British Government “in good faith” and with an eye to restoring Northern Ireland’s powersharing institutions.

“The SDLP will study the legal text of the agreement between the European Commission and the British Government in detail over the coming hours,” he said.

“Our primary goals have been to retain the benefits of dual market access for businesses in Northern Ireland, restore the democratic institutions of the Good Friday Agreement and to send politicians back to work”.

“My appeal to political leaders is to approach this moment in good faith and with a common determination to restore our Assembly”.