New Clause 1 - Appointment of First Minister and Deputy First Minister

Part of Northern Ireland (Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern) Bill – in the House of Commons at 1:30 pm on 26 October 2021.

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Photo of Simon Hoare Simon Hoare Chair, Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Chair, Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Chair, Northern Ireland Affairs Committee 1:30, 26 October 2021

Let me echo what my right hon. Friend Julian Smith said about the need for speed to get this legislation through, which I urge on my right hon. Friends on the Front Bench, and hopefully on business managers in the other place. This Bill has dawdled for too long. I agree very much with the vast majority of what Colum Eastwood had to say, and I shall come back to that point in a moment. [Interruption.] It is not “surprise, surprise”, and I say to Carla Lockhart that when somebody speaks sense, one should usually notice and acknowledge it.

Alex Kane, who is known to many in this House, tweeted this morning:

“23 years after the GFA the government is introducing legislation to give a six month ‘life raft’ for parties (on full pay I presume)—”

I urge my right hon. Friend the Minister to give further consideration to that point when the Bill arrives in the other place—

“if one or other of the big two walks away and collapse looks likely. All it will do is nurture crises over longer periods and bolster instability.”

I know that is the last thing the Government want to do, but we must ensure that we are not bedding in the psychology of instability, if you will. As the hon. Members for Foyle and for North Down (Stephen Farry), and doubtless others, made clear, devolution is not a plaything. It is not there to support or to kick around like a football between two, three or four parties; it is the localisation of decision making. Many right hon. and hon. Members representing Northern Ireland constituencies will have had inboxes and postbags about this issue that are far fuller than mine as Chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.

In the last interregnum, what has been happening on education, health, housing and infrastructure? This is about delivering prosperity and peace, lives and livelihoods. All of us who pick up the baton of public service should always remind ourselves of that. Particularly as we come out of covid, the communities of Northern Ireland need us all, whether those working in Stormont or those here, to be resolutely focused on meeting and delivering on their needs, as we will in every other part of the United Kingdom.