Relations between the DUP and the Tories are under increasing strain amid uncertainty over when the £1 billion promised as part of the confidence and supply deal to keep the Conservatives in power will be delivered.

Next week will mark the first anniversary of the collapse of the Northern Ireland assembly. This has caused difficulties on both sides of the Irish Sea, with civil servants reluctant to take key decisions or spend money. Northern Ireland’s cancer strategy is ten years old but cannot be revised without an executive at Stormont. Campaigners say the impasse is at least partially at fault for declining standards.

This week the DUP publicly demanded that Westminster politicians take over the running of the province if Sinn Fein and the Unionists