The UK’s Northern Ireland secretary has told Stormont’s rowing politicians that there are “no more excuses” for failing to restore powersharing.
Julian Smith vowed on a visit to Belfast to re-energise stalled talks to resurrect the devolved institutions as he expressed frustration at the pace of recent negotiations. He said public sector workers had been forced for too long to fill the vacuum left by a lack of leadership.
“Getting Stormont up and running has to be the priority,” he said “Political parties across the spectrum must now realise that civil servants, police, hospital workers, nurses, doctors, have for too long stepped in for a lack of political leadership and there are no more excuses — we just have to get this assembly and executive