DUP urged to return to Stormont after Hilary Benn talks

Hilary Benn was welcomed to Stormont's Parliament Buildings by Assembly Speaker Alex Maskey

Sinn Féin and Alliance have urged the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) return to the Stormont institutions after meetings with the new shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland.

Hilary Benn met the five largest Northern Ireland parties.

He encouraged the DUP to return to Stormont, while recognising that the Windsor Framework must be implemented in a "sensitive and sensible" way.

The SDLP, Sinn Féin, Alliance and the UUP also called for the DUP to return.

Mr Benn said that he had listened carefully to what DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and deputy leader Gavin Robinson had to say.

"All of us, every single one of us, want to see the institutions up and running again," he said.

Stormont's power-sharing executive collapsed last year as part of the DUP's protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol.

There were changes to those trading arrangements in the Windsor Framework, agreed by the UK and the EU in March, but the DUP has said the new deal is not good enough.

Mr Benn is on his first trip to Northern Ireland since his appointment in September.

The son of former cabinet minister and veteran left-winger Tony Benn, he has represented Leeds Central in the House of Commons since 1999.

He served in the last Labour government from 2003 to 2010.

More recently, he has been shadow foreign secretary and chairman of the Brexit select committee.

• What is the Northern Ireland Protocol?

A major critic of Brexit, Mr Benn criticised the European Union in 2022 over the Northern Ireland Protocol, saying changes had to be made.

He has kept a relatively low public profile since being appointed to the Northern Ireland role by Sir Keir Starmer.

Stormont has been without a functioning executive or assembly since last February

He replaced Peter Kyle who was appointed shadow minister for science, innovation and technology.

Mr Benn is meeting Sinn Féin, the DUP, Alliance, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).

Following their talks with Mr Benn on Tuesday morning, Sinn Féin MP John Finucane said both he and and the party's deputy leader Michelle O'Neill had a "positive and constructive meeting".

However, he said there was "no excuse" for the DUP remaining out of government.

He was responding to the news the party's ruling executive is meeting on Thursday night.

The DUP has said it is a routine meeting, but Mr Finucane said in the absence of government "there's no one at the wheel"

Speaking after the meeting with Mr Benn, the DUP leader moved to kill speculation about Thursday's gathering.

Sir Jeffrey said his party had made some progress in its negotiations with the government.

"We will no doubt reach a point where both sides will recognise that we've taken this as far as we can," he added.

"We are not there yet."

He said the DUP executive meeting had been planned in advance and would deal with "routine party business".

Meanwhile, Mr Finucane said the main message "was the need to restore the assembly and the [Stormont] executive, to have ministers in place at the job they were elected to do over a year ago".

'Not sustainable'

Mrs Long said it had been a "very good and constructive" meeting with Mr Benn.

She said the absence of a sitting assembly and executive "was not a sustainable position for Northern Ireland to be in".

Asked about the DUP's ruling executive meeting this week, she said the only meeting she was interested in was "a meeting in that [assembly] chamber with the DUP and all of the other MLAs so we can get back to work".

UUP leader Doug Beattie also said he had a good meeting with Mr Benn, but remained pessimistic about the likelihood of an imminent return of the Stormont institutions.

"I think that meeting of the DUP on Thursday will be their stock take for their executive, to say, 'this is where we are, this is what we've asked for, these are the papers we've put in, and these are the answers we're waiting to get'.

"I don't think much will change this week."

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said Mr Benn was a "great appointment" to the role.

He added that the DUP should show leadership and return to Stormont.

"I hope that all of the space that Jeffrey and the DUP have been given over the past number of months is going to finally be used at some point," Mr Eastwood said.