This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A vote of no confidence will be held in the Northern Ireland assembly, which could force the region’s first minister to step down and trigger fresh elections to the devolved parliament in Belfast.

The Social Democratic and Labour party (SDLP) has won cross-party support for its motion censuring Arlene Foster over allegations about a scandal that is estimated will cost taxpayers £400m.

The main opposition parties – the Ulster Unionists, the Greens, Traditional Unionist Voice and the leftwing People Before Profit – are backing the SDLP’s move to exclude Foster from the highest office in the province.

This latest crisis to imperil the power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland is related to the Renewable Heat Incentive, a scheme set up in November 2012 to encourage the consumption of heat from renewable sources in the region.

It offered financial incentives to farms, businesses and other non-domestic consumers to use biomass boilers that mostly burned wood pellets, as well as solar thermal and heat pumps.

A whistleblower alleged in February this year that the scheme was being abused and that one farmer had made £1m out of renting an empty shed.

Northern Ireland’s auditor general, Kieran Donnelly, concluded this summer that there was “no upper limit on the amount of energy that would be paid for”.

“The more heat that is generated, the more is paid,” he said.

Last week, former Stormont minister Jonathan Bell accused fellow members of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) of delaying the closure of the controversial scheme.

Bell also alleged that DUP advisers had tried to “cleanse the record” of any links between Foster and the decision-making process that led to the RHI scheme’s creation. Foster has apologised for not ensuring there was a cap on the millions being paid out to those who took up the scheme and made considerable profits from it.

The DUP MP for Lagan Valley, Jeffrey Donaldson, confirmed on Sunday that Bell has been suspended from the party over his allegations.

Donaldson said: “If you look at the DUP rules, Jonathan did not seek permission for the interview that he did.

“He did not tell the party in advance what he was doing and that’s not the way that most political parties operate.”

The leader of the SDLP, Colum Eastwood, said the allegations of very serious wrongdoing were “the biggest public finance scandal in the history of devolution”.

Eastwood said: “Parties from across the political spectrum have now rallied to sign the motion to exclude Arlene Foster for a period of six months while a full investigation can take place. It is our view that this should take the form of a robust and independent public inquiry. There can be no hiding place for any individual or any piece of evidence relevant to this fiasco that will cost taxpayers who haven’t even been born yet millions of pounds.”

The focus on Monday will be fixed on what Sinn Féin will do when the vote is called. The Republican party is the DUP’s only partner in the power-sharing government at Stormont.

Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Féin deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, has suggested that Foster should step down while an independent inquiry is held into what has been called the “cash for ash scandal”.

The DUP is insisting that Foster is “going nowhere”, and only Sinn Féin supporting the vote of no confidence, and possibly McGuinness resigning as deputy first minister, would lead to the dissolution of the current parliament and a fresh election early in the new year.