NI Protocol: Government urges DUP to return to Stormont 'as soon as possible'

Northern Ireland's political parties should return to power sharing "as soon as possible", the UK foreign secretary has said.

Liz Truss urged the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to "get on with it".

But DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said that would depend on whether Parliament backed a plan to get rid of parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Taoiseach (Irish PM) Michéal Martin said the plan was "dispiriting" and "an assault on an international agreement".

Sinn Féin leader Michelle O'Neill urged the DUP to stop blocking the formation of a Stormont Executive.

The protocol is the part of the Brexit deal which keeps Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods.

It prevents a hard border with the Republic of Ireland, but it means checks on some goods arriving into Northern Ireland from other parts of the UK - a situation opposed by unionists in Northern Ireland who argue it creates a trade border in the Irish Sea.

The DUP has refused to form a new power-sharing executive until its concerns about the protocol are addressed.

But Ms O'Neill accused the Prime Minister of "pandering" to the DUP at Westminster.

She said there should be no further delay on forming an executive and called for both sides to find an agreed way forward on the protocol.

"Society and the people should not be held to ransom while that work continues," she said.

"What we want is an executive formed today; we're ready to be there today."

However, the DUP leader said there was "a stark choice here for Parliament".

"The Northern Ireland Protocol and Good Friday Agreement cannot exist together," he said. "One seriously harms the other."

He said the protocol undermined the "cross-community consensus on which the political institutions operate".

"Parliament can either choose to go forward with the [Good Friday] Agreement and the political institutions and stability in Northern Ireland, or the protocol, but it can't have both," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.

On Monday, the UK government published the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, to be debated and voted on by Parliament.

At the centre of the government's plan to ease the impact on businesses is the concept of green lanes and red lanes for trade.

This would mean:

London also wants any trade disputes resolved by "independent arbitration", not by the European Court of Justice, and Northern Ireland to benefit from the same tax breaks as elsewhere in the UK.

Sir Jeffrey said that without the support and consent of unionists, the Stormont institutions could not operate.

His party, which won the second-most seats in the recent Northern Ireland Assembly elections, argues it creates a divide that could lead to the break-up of the UK.

It is refusing to set up a new Northern Ireland executive with Sinn Féin - which won the most seats in the election - and other parties, until changes are made to it.

A majority of MLAs in the Stormont Assembly signed a joint letter to the prime minister stating their opposition to the proposed legislation to amend the protocol.

It was signed by 52 of the 90 assembly members (MLAs) representing Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the Alliance Party.

"People deserve to have a government. We have published this bill which does deliver for all the communities of Northern Ireland," Ms Truss told the programme.

She said that triggering Article 16 "wouldn't have resolved tax issue and custom issues" and instead would merely have "kicked the can down the road".

"If I could get negotiated solution with EU that would be my first preference.

"I have looked at all the options this is the only option that creates the long term, durable solution that the people of NI deserve," she added.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin described as "reckless" the UK government's decision to proceed unilaterally in dealing with the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Speaking in the Dáil (lower house of parliament) on Tuesday, Mr Martin said the British government was not acting in good faith.

The taoiseach said the London move had the potential to destabilise politics in Northern Ireland and had to be seen in the context of internal British politics.

He said business leaders in Northern Ireland supported the protocol and whatever problems there were could be sorted through negotiation with the EU.

There has been a mixed reaction from businesses in Northern Ireland to the government's plans.

Manufacturing NI said that while the protocol needed reformed it did not need a "wrecking ball".