Northern Ireland secretary of state James Brokenshire says local civil service will run out of money if he does not pass law

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Northern Ireland has taken a significant step towards transferring political power back to London with the secretary of state James Brokenshire imposing a budget on the region.

With the main political parties in the Stormont assembly unable to reach a deal to restore power-sharing in Belfast, Brokenshire has drawn up a regional budget to keep devolved ministries financially solvent. Brokenshire has warned that the local civil service will run out of money if he does not pass a budget into law at Westminster within days.



The nationalist Social Democratic and Labour party said on Monday that it was “utter madness” that the region was sliding back to direct rule because it would diminish pro-remain Northern Ireland’s voice in Brexit negotiations.



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The budget plan includes a 5.4% increase in health spending in the region.

Overall public spending for the province will rise by 3.2%, which means that factoring in inflation there will be no actual increase in expenditure.



Brokenshire’s budget plan does not include the £1.2bn special package that Northern Ireland agreed between Theresa May and the Democratic Unionists as part of the deal to keep the Tories in power.

Brokenshire later expressed regret at having to impose the budget on Northern Ireland.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday announcing the financial package for the region, he said his budget plans “should not be a barrier to to negotiations to continue, but the ongoing lack of agreement has had tangible consequences for people and public services in Northern Ireland”.

On his budget, Brokenshire added: “That is a step that I do not intend to take while there is an opportunity for an executive to be formed.”

He also confirmed the release of the first tranche from the £1.2bn aid package that was extracted from May by the Democratic Unionist party after the general election in exchange for keeping the Tories in power.



Brokenshire confirmed on Monday night that £50m from the package negotiated by the DUP, whose 10 MPs prop up the minority Conservative government, will be released for this financial year.

It will be spent at the discretion of civil servants who are currently running devolved government departments in Belfast. DUP leader at Westminster and North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds described the release as a “very significant moment.”

Critics have claimed the aid package was nothing more than a bribe to win DUP support. The DUP has insisted the additional cash will be spent on capital spending and other projects across all communities in Northern Ireland.



The party backed Brokenshire’s move to impose a budget on the region. The DUP leader, Arlene Foster, said it was the right step to ensure “good governance” in Northern Ireland.

The former first minister continued: “If there continues to be a refusal to restore devolution then there will be greater intervention from London.”

But Foster said she still believed a deal could be reached between the DUP and Sinn Féin after 10 months of political deadlock and no functioning executive running local ministries.

Sinn Féin’s northern leader, Michelle O’Neill, said the British government was more interested in placating the DUP given that party’s pivotal role in holding the balance of power at Westminster.

“Theresa May and her party have acquiesced in their own self-interest to the DUP blocking the equality agenda and denying rights which are the norm in all other parts of our islands,” O’Neill said.

O’Neill repeated Sinn Féin’s core demand for a stand-alone Irish language act that would put Gaelic on an equal legal par to English in Northern Ireland and which the DUP has so far resisted.

The dispute over the language act has become the central reason the two main parties in the Stormont parliament have failed to reach an agreement leading to devolution’s restoration.

At the weekend the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, said it was “very unlikely” that a deal could be secured with the DUP before Christmas.

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Colum Eastwood, the leader of the SDLP, said on Monday that a political vacuum filled by direct rule could lead to a “hard border” on the island of Ireland.

He said: “It is utter madness that while the Brexit negotiations are taking place, the voice of the majority of people in the north of Ireland who voted to remain is silenced.

“Brexit is a real threat to our way of life on this island. Any suggestion of any border here must be resisted. The challenges we face here are unique and deserve careful consideration. The delivery of British direct rule by the Sinn Féin and the DUP will deliver nothing for rights and nothing but a hard brexit and I fear a hard border on this island.”

The deputy leader of the cross-community Alliance party, Stephen Farry, said the drawing up of a budget that was meant to be devised by local politicians signified the “slippery slope towards full direct rule”.



Farry laid the blame for the transfer of powers back to London however on the two main political parties in Belfast. He accused the DUP and Sinn Féin of being responsible for the “political dysfunction” that was leading back to direct rule.