No Christmas election for NI is an early gift but what happens now?

Could Chris Heaton-Harris be considering legislation to remove 12-week the legal deadline to call a fresh poll?

You can almost feel the collective sigh of relief.

The decision by Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris to scrap his December election plan is an early Christmas present for Stormont parties.

They dreaded the prospect of going to the polls 10 days before Christmas in an election which was only ever going to deepen the political crisis.

But while welcome, the U-turn by Mr Heaton-Harris has damaged his credibility.

It has also raised questions about how it was managed by the Northern Ireland Office.

The early-morning statement fulfilled his pledge to provide certainty this week but means he cannot be questioned about his humiliating climbdown.

We cannot ask why he did not act sooner, knowing an election was pointless.

His insistence that he had a legal obligation to call a poll didn't cut it.

We have a long history of Northern Ireland secretaries who dug in before being forced to change the law to remove a deadline.

Just a day ago, his fellow minister Steve Baker told MPs an election was coming and it was just a matter of picking a date.

Not a wise move on the eve of a climb down.

Read more: Stormont crisis explained

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• A simple guide to the Northern Ireland Protocol

The threat of a December election has been lifted but Mr Heaton-Harris has not removed the option from the table.

To fulfil his legal obligation he has to hold an election by 19 January and must call it by 8 December.

But is Chris Heaton-Harris really going to ask politicians to canvass over Christmas? If he does, many of the election deadlines for postal and proxy votes would fall on Christmas week.

Plus, there is the extra headache for electoral staff in getting ballot papers printed on time.

Nominations for an election on 19 January would close on 23 December, which means ballot papers would not be printed until the following week at the earliest.

Staff would then face a battle to get those ballot papers out in time for postal voters before the deadline.

There is a good reason why Northern Ireland has never had an election over Christmas.

Talk of delaying an assembly poll to run alongside the council election in May is also problematic.

The prospect of 850 council candidates and more than 200 Assembly runners canvassing at the same time would test the electorate.

Not to mention running two STV counts on the eve of King Charles's coronation.

The intervention of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last week to prevent an election being called is also telling.

It exposed a lack of judgement at the Northern Ireland Office on such a big call.

Being overruled by your boss at the 11th hour is not a good look.

But you also couldn't rule out it was all part of a strategy to help the Secretary of State to get off a hook.

As the 6,000 electoral staff are stood down on Friday and the politicians put their posters away (for now), Chris Heaton Harris will set out his next steps next week.

Backward steps possibly