BELFAST: Northern Ireland on Tuesday moved a step closer to ending a near two-year political deadlock after the main pro-UK party finally endorsed a deal with London aimed at reopening the region’s assembly.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) walked out of the regional power-sharing government in February 2022 in protest at post-Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland, which has the UK’s only land border with the European Union.

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said the agreement with London — approved in an internal vote at a closed-door meeting in Lisburn, near Belfast — formed a basis to restore the Northern Ireland Assembly, that has been paralysed for nearly two years.

“The result was clear. The DUP has been decisive. I have been mandated to move forward,” Donaldson told reporters at around 1am following a marathon five-hour meeting and vote.

Donaldson told BBC radio on Tuesday that the deal would be published “as early as tomorrow” (Wednesday) and would include “constitutional legislation” as well as “practical arrangements”.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called it a “positive step” towards restoring the institutions and “delivering for the people of Northern Ireland,” his spokesman said.

Sunak’s Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris told reporters that “all the conditions are now in place for the assembly to return,” with little opposition expected in Westminster.

The deal contained “significant changes... to make sure our internal market works properly”, he added, saying he did not believe it would require renegotiations with the EU. An approved deal would allow the DUP and the nationalist pro-Irish Sinn Fein to elect a speaker for the Assembly as early as next week.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2024