Northern Ireland secretary says he will call Stormont election after attempts to restore executive fail
The UK’s Northern Ireland secretary has said he “will be calling an election” in the nation after a deadline to restore devolved government at Stormont passed at midnight.
Yesterday, last-ditch efforts to restore the multi-party executive failed and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris had been expected to subsequently call an election today and announce the date on which it would take place.
Speaking to broadcasters on Friday, Mr Heaton-Harris said he will provide an update on the snap Northern Ireland Assembly election next week, adding that talks with Stormont parties will continue.
There has been speculation the poll would be held on 15 December.
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The Northern Ireland secretary added that he is “deeply disappointed” to now be faced with “limited options”.
“This is a really serious situation, as of a minute past midnight last night there are no longer ministers in office in the Northern Ireland Executive,” he said.
“I will take limited but necessary steps to ensure that public services do continue to run and to protect the public finances but there is a limit to what the secretary of state can do in these circumstances.”
He added: “I hear it when the parties say that they really do not want an election at all. But nearly all of them are parties who signed up to the rules, the law.
“That means I need to call an election so you’ll hear more from me on that particular point next week.”
Mr Heaton-Harris continued: “I have listened to the party leaders, I am going to talk to them all again next week. But I will be calling an election.
“Nearly all the parties who have been saying this won’t help the situation actually signed up to the rules that make this situation happen. Why call it now? Because I am legally bound to do so.”
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‘Clock is ticking’ for Northern Ireland
With no ministerial executive in place, the UK government has a legal duty to call another election.
Stormont ministers, who have been operating in shadow form since the Assembly collapsed earlier this year, also ceased to hold office at midnight.
Senior civil servants will now have responsibility for running devolved departments – but their powers are limited.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood urged Mr Heaton-Harris to drop the idea of an election and focus on restoring the Stormont institutions.
Read more:
Why is there still no assembly and what does Brexit have to do with it?
“The only thing proposing an early election achieved was prompting anger from the public who want politicians dealing with issues like the cost of living emergency and our crumbling health service, not knocking on their doors,” he said.
“What we really need is renewed negotiations between the British government and the EU to solve the small number of outstanding issues around the Protocol, while protecting the huge economic benefits, so they we can get the institutions up and running again.”
On Thursday, MLAs met during a recalled sitting of the Assembly in an attempt to elect a new speaker, but it did not go ahead as the DUP refused to support the nominations and the session was suspended.
The DUP’s boycott of the Stormont institution is part of a campaign of opposition to the NI Protocol, with the party claiming it will not return to power-sharing until decisive action is taken to remove economic barriers on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
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NI heads towards a general election
The protocol has effectively placed a sea border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland after Brexit.
The government has vowed to secure changes to the protocol to empower ministers to scrap the arrangements without the approval of Brussels – either by a negotiated compromise with the EU or through proposed domestic legislation.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said not enough progress has been made on addressing issues of concern around the protocol.
But Sinn Fein’s Stormont leader Michelle O’Neill said the DUP “have left us all at the mercy of a heartless and dysfunctional Tory government”.
Irish premier Michael Martin warned that elections “can lead to further polarisation”, adding that he “genuinely” believes there is a desire on behalf of the UK government and Mr Sunak to find a negotiated resolution to the protocol issues.
Another election could cost £6m, which would be unpopular during a cost of living crisis in the UK nation with the lowest disposable income and the highest energy prices.
As part of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland’s main parties must be part of a power-sharing agreement for the government to function.
The UK government has insisted it is not considering a joint authority arrangement with Dublin for the governance of Northern Ireland in the absence of the Stormont executive.
World
‘Widespread sexual violence’ took place during Hamas’s 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says
A newly released report led by Israeli legal and gender experts presents detailed evidence alleging “widespread and systematic” sexual violence during the Hamas-led terror attack on 7 October.
Warning: This story contains descriptions of rape and sexual violence
The findings, published by the Dinah Project, argue that these acts amount to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and assert that “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war”.
The report draws on 18 months of investigation and is based on survivor testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with first responders, morgue personnel and healthcare professionals.
According to the Dinah Project, the documented patterns – such as forced nudity, gang rapes, genital mutilation, and threats of forced marriage – indicate a deliberate and coordinated use of sexual violence by Hamas operatives during the attack.
Reported incidents span at least six locations, including the Nova music festival, and several kibbutzim in southern Israel.
A destroyed car near the police station in Sderot, following the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Pic: AP
One section of the report describes victims “found fully or partially naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their backs and/or to structures such as trees and poles, and shot”.
At the Nova music festival and surrounding areas, the investigators found “reasonable grounds to believe” that multiple women were raped or gang-raped before being killed.
The report’s findings are consistent with earlier investigations by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Read more:
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Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza
The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict previously concluded that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” CRSV took place during the attack.
Destroyed vehicles near the grounds of the Supernova electronic music festival. Pic: AP
Significantly, the Dinah Project urges the international community to officially recognise the use of sexual violence by Hamas as a deliberate strategy of war and calls on the United Nations to add Hamas to its list of parties responsible for conflict-related sexual violence.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The nature and scale of sexual violence on 7 October have been a subject of intense controversy, with some accusing parties of weaponising the narrative for political ends.
This report seeks to confront what its authors call “denial, misinformation, and global silence,” and to provide justice for the victims.
Hamas has denied that its fighters have used sexual violence and mistreated female hostages.
World
Israeli soldiers ‘psychologically broken’ after ‘confronting the reality’ in Gaza, UN expert says
A UN expert has said some young soldiers in the Israeli Defence Forces are being left “psychologically broken” after “confront[ing] the reality among the rubble” when serving in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, was responding to a Sky News interview with an Israeli solider who described arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza.
She told The World with Yalda Hakim that “many” of the young people fighting in Gaza are “haunted by what they have seen, what they have done”.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Ms Albanese said. “This is not a war, this is an assault against civilians and this is producing a fracture in many of them.
“As that soldier’s testimony reveals, especially the youngest among the soldiers have been convinced this is a form of patriotism, of defending Israel and Israeli society against this opaque but very hard felt enemy, which is Hamas.
“But the thing is that they’ve come to confront the reality among the rubble of Gaza.”
An Israeli soldier directs a tank near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel. Pic: AP
Being in Gaza is “probably this is the first time the Israeli soldiers are awakening to this,” she added. “And they don’t make sense of this because their attachment to being part of the IDF, which is embedded in their national ideology, is too strong.
“This is why they are psychologically broken.”
Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesman who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said he believes the Sky News interview with the former IDF solider “reflects one part of how ugly, difficult and horrible fighting in a densely populated, urban terrain is”.
“I think [the ex-soldier] is reflecting on how difficult it is to fight in such an area and what the challenges are on the battlefield,” he said.
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Ex-IDF spokesperson: ‘No distinction between military and civilians’
‘An economy of genocide’
Ms Albanese, one of dozens of independent UN-mandated experts, also said her most recent report for the human rights council has identified “an economy of genocide” in Israel.
The system, she told Hakim, is made up of more than 60 private sector companies “that have become enmeshed in the economy of occupation […] that have Israel displace the Palestinians and replace them with settlers, settlements and infrastructure Israel runs.”
Israel has rejected allegations of genocide in Gaza, citing its right to defend itself after Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023.
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‘Israel has shifted towards economy of genocide’
The companies named in Ms Albanese’s report are in, but not limited to, the financial sector, big tech and the military industry.
“These companies can be held responsible for being directed linked to, or contributing, or causing human rights impacts,” she said. “We’re not talking of human rights violations, we are talking of crimes.”
“Some of the companies have engaged in good faith, others have not,” Ms Albanese said.
Read more:
Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza
British surgeons on life in Gaza
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The companies she has named include American technology giant Palantir, which has issued a statement to Sky News.
It said it is “not true” that Palantir “is the (or a) developer of the ‘Gospel’ – the AI-assisted targeting software allegedly used by the IDF in Gaza, and that we are involved with the ‘Lavender’ database used by the IDF for targeting cross-referencing”.
“Both capabilities are independent of and pre-ate Palantir’s announced partnership with the Israeli Defence Ministry,” the statement added.
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