NIO

Peter Robinson said Northern Ireland could have the best of both worlds with seamless access to both the UK and EU market. But if our rules for trading goods are set in Brussels, it will always be costlier and more expensive for mainland companies to send products to this province

Owen Polley: No unionist worth the name would accept being semi detached from GB

Baroness Kate Hoey at an anti-NI Protocol rally in Ballymoney in March 2022. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA

NIO pledge to spend wisely when it comes to cash for Casement Park rebuild

Letters to editor

Letter: London's skilled wordsmiths get ready to say the Union is safe

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris survives the cabinet reshuffle.

No change at NIO despite Stormont hiatus

If the simple majority clause of the Belfast Agreement has to be respected, as we are so often told, then so too should the secretary of state’s right to make a decision on any border poll without setting out prior conditions

Owen Polley: UK would be stupid to set out the criteria for a border poll

The flag of Israel, the Union flag and the Saltire fly above the UK Government Queen Elizabeth House building in Edinburgh. Picture date: Friday October 13, 2023. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

Government buildings in GB display the Israeli flag but none on main NIO office

Morning View

Editorial: Northern Ireland has failed to show solidarity with Israel

Jamie Bryson says: 'No self respecting unionist or loyalist will ever compromise, weaken or give in on the Union'

Jamie Bryson: My message to Steve Baker- I wear the badge 'hardliner' with pride

The House of Lords was eventually going to give way to the House of Commons on the legacy bill. All that is left is for the king to give Royal Assent, assuming he does not take Bertie Ahern’s advice and refuse – thereby creating a constitutional crisis

Jeff Dudgeon: After years of imbalance in legacy probes, new law passes

Lord Caine said if Stormont was still not up and running when a new chief constable was appointed, then it would fall to the UK government to ratify the chosen candidate

Lord Caine: Stormont vacuum means London would have to approve new PSNI chief

Fly Atlantic plans to launch in Spring 2025

Airline has ambitious plans to revolutionise NI as a hub for US travel

The self-proclaimed 'hardmen' of Brexit are as wet as the Irish Sea. Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris (left) and Northern Ireland Minister Steve Baker will not like the reality of the DUP commitments

Jamie Bryson: DUP can't backslide and Heaton-Harris and Baker must learn that

There are questions for Downing Street to answer, writes David McNarry

Letter: Unionists hold strong negotiating cards - but there are wild cards

Teachers' pay claim

NI teaching unions call for 6.5% pay award made in England to be matched

The Casement Park site has not been in use since 2013. Pic: Pacemaker

SOS asked: Is Casement higher priority than schools and hospitals?

The Stormont Executive and Assembly have been in cold storage for the past 16 months

NI budget crisis: NIO says return of Stormont crucial
The restoration of the Stormont power-sharing institutions is crucial so Northern Ireland politicians can deal with budget pressures, the government has said.

DUP MP Gavin Robinson told the House of Commons that the government was 'gaslighting' Northern Ireland over the budget issue

DUP MP Gavin Robinson: Northern Ireland being gaslighted by government

The loyalist Jamie Bryson and Simon Hoare MP at Queen's University during the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Belfast Agreement on Wednesday April 19 2023. Like Bertie Ahern, Mr Hoare listened intently and engaged with the viewpoints set out

Jamie Bryson: NIO should adopt listening approach of Ahern and Hoare

Steve Baker, UK Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office, at a service at Clonard Monastery to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Jamie Bryson says he challenged him at a later date. "Unlike the self-styled ‘hardmen’ of Brexit, unionism is made of sterner stuff," writes Mr Bryson

Jamie Bryson: I challenged NIO minister but he called for unionist compromise

Rev Robert Coulter was well connected within unionism. He is seen here with Dr Ian Paisley and the ex prime minister John Major. Earlier, he held talks at his home with the NIO minister Brian Mawhinney, who had ostensibly come to the house to discuss education with John Coulter who was News Letter Education Correspondent

Belfast Agreement at 25: I was dad's notetaker during early talks with unionists

St Aidan's parish church, Glenavy, Co Antrim Picture: Billy Maxwell

Free Presbyterians charge NIO over "heinous" abortion laws

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris at Hillsborough Castle after meeting Stormont leaders over the Windsor Framework on Thursday. Lord Dodds says of him: "Overblown and windy statements are quickly followed by the sound of hot air disappearing from the punctured balloon". Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Nigel Dodds: It turns out the Stormont brake mechanism is unworkable

Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill said a UK/Irish arrangement could be the only alternative if the devolution impasse continued

Windsor Framework: We will not consider joint authority, says NIO

Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O'Neill has said governance in Northern Ireland would probably involve a joint arrangement between the UK and Irish governments if powersharing is not restored at Stormont

Alternative to powersharing in NI is joint UK/Irish arrangement, says Sinn Fein

Morning View

Editorial: Heaton-Harris and Baker talking up protocol deal in an unhelpful way

There’s an effort to end the stalemate at Stormont by passing an organ donor opt-out law. But international evidence suggests that the change by itself will not improve the organ situation by much

Esmond Birnie: It is far from clear whether an opt-out law in NI would work

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris (left) and his garrulous minister of state, Steve Baker, have spent months reprimanding the DUP for its decision to collapse the executive. They seem convinced that the people of Northern Ireland are desperate for power-sharing to return

Owen Polley: NIO pair not the first to talk up their unionism, then not deliver
Last week, as Northern Ireland digested the Supreme Court’s verdict that the Protocol is legal, the secretary of state took another important decision.

David McNarry left with David Trimble and other Ulster Unionists at the signing of the Belfast Agreement in 1998. Mr McNarry does not want the 25th anniversary to be used to place the Northern Ireland Protocol alongside the deal. "Showboating the protocol isn’t on, given the damage it’s done to a deal the I was proud to back," he writes

Beware NIO plans to use Belfast Agreement anniversary to project protocol

Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart.

Clarity provided on when to expect £600 energy payment in Northern Ireland

Chris Heaton-Harris did not need to ring fence the funding of abortion services. But terminations are now to be prioritised over everything else

The only government funding that is to be protected is for the taking of life

The purpose of the NIO is to ensure the smooth working of the devolution settlement in the province

Samuel Morrison: Better things were expected of Steve Baker and Chris Heaton-Har...

Unboxing of NIO Cocktails with eco-friendly packaging

Sustainability key for eco-friendly Christmas gifts from NIO Cocktails

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland the Rt Hon Chris Heaton-Harris MP

Chris Heaton-Harris 'resignation' email sent to newsrooms

Punishing Britain at Strasbourg – but not the terrorists – has to stop, writes Jeffrey Dudgeon

Jeffrey Dudgeon: Strasbourg legacy inquiries must be brought to an end

Steve Baker told a Westminster debate today that an date would be confirmed soon

Assembly election date will be confirmed ‘soon’, says NIO minister

Peter Brooke was clapped and cheered at the Tory conference

Letters: Reminded of speech about UK having no selfish interest in NI

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris. Unionists have welcomed clarity from the Northern Ireland Office, which he heads up, on whether joint authority is a feasible way forward for Northern Ireland.

Unionists welcome ‘belated’ NIO clarity on joint authority

Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office, and Lord Caine

NIO minister says joint authority 'fundamentally inconsistent' with GFA

Robin Swann at Stormont yesterday after his last press conference as health minister

Northern Ireland Assembly elections: Poll looms as NIO spokesperson tells the Ne...

Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris heads up the Northern Ireland Office, which has declined to reiterate its previous opposition to joint rule over NI.

NIO asked why it won't repeat previous rejection of joint authority

Chief Electoral Officer Virginia McVea at the Titanic Exhibition Centre, Belfast as counting begins at the Northern Ireland Assembly Election Count on May 6, 2022

Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Wheels in motion for Assembly election on December 15

Steve Baker, UK Minister of State in the Northern Ireland Office pictured at his office in Belfast. Photo: Kirth Ferris/Pacemaker Press

NIO minister: I was betrayed over Brexit and don’t want that to happen again

Letter to the editor

Unionists have let NIO agenda thrive

Letter to the editor

The old Brexit warrior Steve Baker is one to watch on the NI Protocol

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris and Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney pictured during a press conference at Hillsborough Castle last week

Jamie Bryson: Unionism/loyalism has learnt the lesson to take nothing on trust

Letter to the editor

The protocol is not best way to help Ireland protect its interests

Boris Johnson and his famous 2016 battle bus

Who is new Tory NI minister Steve Baker and what did he say to upset unionists?

Steve Baker, Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office.
Photo: Jacob King/PA Wire

NIO minister ‘happy to eat humble pie’ to restore UK-Ireland relationship

Steve Baker (left), Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office, and Lord Caine, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office, speaking at the Conservative Party annual conference at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham on Sunday. Photo: Jacob King/PA Wire

We need humility to repair relations with Ireland, says NIO minister

The government has not delivered an end to the Irish Sea border or sufficient material change to the NI Protocol to repair the breaches to the Belfast Agreement that its imposition has caused

David Campbell: The DUP are right to stand by their electoral pledge

Conor Burns MP. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Minister’s get back to Stormont demand ‘misguided and mistaken’

NIO Minister of State Conor Burns visits R Barkley & Sons in Ballymoney to understand how the NI Protocol is impacting impacting real businesses and the free movement of goods within the UK internal market between GB and NI. Photo: Aug 22, 2022

Minister Conor Burns vows government will 'fix' Northern Ireland Protocol

David Trimble at the Omagh bomb site

David Trimble: Rows with NIO over flight home from Europe after Omagh

Minister of State for Northern Ireland Conor Burns told reporters today that 'Dublin are our closest partners in Europe'

NIO minister Conor Burns insists ‘Dublin are our closest partners in Europe’

The objective of flying British and Irish flags in parallel will undoubtedly give rise to litigation. A provision in the identity and language bill will be deployed by nationalist activists to require parity of esteem between British and other national identities and cultures

Jamie Bryson: The UK and Irish flags will be treated the same under identity law