MLA wage cut: 'We will eat grass if we have to' says erstwhile Northern Ireland farming minister

Mr Poots made the comments to the BBC’s William Crawley on Radio Ulster on Wednesday, as a means of stressing how the DUP will refuse to “concede ground” over the Northern Ireland Protocol, regardless of the pressure they face.

It comes as the Tory Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris made a statement to the House of Commons, formally unveiling the long-expected plan to cut MLA salaries, since no government is in place at Stormont six months after the last election.

In addition, he also kicked the prospect of a new election into the long grass, delaying any new vote until as far back as next spring.

Once that six-month threshold with no government was crossed at the tail end of October, Mr Heaton-Harris was obliged by law to set a date for a new poll.

But despite stern assurances that he would not waver over doing so, the date came and went without him announcing any such election.

Under present law, he stood obliged to call an election sometime between December 8 and January 19.

But he said on Wednesday he would change the rules, giving him a six-week repreive on setting a date for the election –followed by another possible six-week period after that.

All in all, it means the election could take place anytime up until April 13, 2023, instead of a pre-Christmas poll as had initially been believed.

Mr Heaton-Harris told the Commons: “Back in May, people cast their votes in Northern Ireland - to give their communities a voice in Stormont.

“However, for six months the parties have not come together and, on the 28th October, the deadline to form an Executive, set down in law passed...

“Since 28th October I have been engaging widely in Northern Ireland, with the Parties, businesses, community representatives and members of the public. And I’ve also spoken with other international interlocutors.

“I think it would be fair to say, Mr Speaker, that the vast majority of those I have spoken to think that an election at this time would be most unwelcome.”

He also went on to add: “People across Northern Ireland are frustrated that MLAs continue to draw a full salary while not performing all the duties that they were elected to do.

"I will therefore be asking for this House’s support to enable me to reduce MLAs’ salaries appropriately.”

Though his address did not go into specifics, it has been reported that the pay cut he has in mind is around one-third.

That would take an MLA’s basic pay from £51,500 to about £34,300 (though MLAs with other responsibilities beyond their basic job, like chairing committees, earn somewhat higher wages).

The DUP has refused so far to enter government with Sinn Fein in protest at the ongoing operation of the Northern Ireland Protocol, and the border which it has established in the Irish Sea (manifesting itself in red tape and inspections surrounding goods entering NI from GB, as if they were coming from a foreign country).

Speaking on Radio Ulster, former DUP leader Edwin Poots said he and his colleagues will not yeild, despite the salary cut.

"It’s not a matter of being financially insulated,” he said.

"It’s an issue that if we have to eat grass, then we’ll eat grass. It’s that important to us.

"Of course it will hurt us. But it’s an issue of such great importance that we will not be conceding ground on it.

"We have to have an outcome.”

He also told the Nolan Show that MLA pay could be cut to “1p per week and we’re still not [getting] the issue resolved until the Protocol’s resolved”.

He added: “The institutions of the Belfast–Good Friday Agreement [are] not operating, and will not operate, and cannot operate, whilst the Protocol is as it exists.”

While the Assembly was last in limbo, from January 2017 to January 2020, the UK government announced in September 2018 that it would stagger a 27.5% cut to MLA pay over four months.

OTHER MLAs REACT:

Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O’Neill said: “What we now have are new deadlines, multiple deadlines, in which he (Mr Heaton-Harris) may or may not call an election.

“So this is not a good enough space for people to be in...

“What do the British Government intend to do to find an agreed way forward on the protocol?”

TUV leader Jim Allister said: “I have no issue with the reduction in salary, but any Secretary of State who thinks financial penalty will dilute essential rejection of the Union-dismantling Protocol is gravely mistaken – certainly as far as TUV is concerned – and any unionist who sees the Protocol as the EU sovereignty grab that it is.

"The Secretary of State should get his focus on recovering full UK sovereignty over the territory of which he is Secretary of State.

"Focus on talks with Brussels which cannot deliver this, because the EU mandate for those talks excludes surrender of their ill-gotten sovereignty, only delays both facing up to the core issue and any prospect of restoration of the Stormont institutions.

"Unionists must continue to stand firm, rejecting either blandishment or threats and any outcome which leaves this part of the UK subject to foreign laws and GB in trade terms treated as a foreign country.

"On these issues there can be no compromise."

Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie MLA said of the pay cut: “I think it’s popular. I think people will expect that.

"You can’t expect politicians and MLAs to get paid a wage if they’re not doing their full job.

"But will it change anything? No.

"Will it force anybody into government? Absolutely not.”

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