LONDON (AP) – Northern Ireland’s largest British trade union party said Tuesday it has agreed to end a boycott that has left people in the region without a power-sharing government for two years.
After a late-night meeting, the Democratic Unionist Party leader said: Jeffrey Donaldson The party executive said it supported the proposal to return to power. He said the agreement reached with the British government in London “provides the basis for our party to appoint the Northern Ireland Executive, which will see the restoration of locally elected bodies”.
The breakthrough comes after the British government last week gave Northern Ireland politicians until February 8th to either rebuild Belfast’s collapsed government or face new elections. .
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said: “All conditions are in place for Parliament to reopen.” “The political parties eligible to form the Executive are meeting today to discuss these issues and we hope to be able to finalize this agreement with them as soon as possible.”
The DUP left the EU in February 2022 over a dispute over post-Brexit trade rules. Since then, he has refused to return to government with the Irish nationalist party Sinn Féin. Under power-sharing rules established as part of the Northern Ireland peace process, the government must include both British trade unionists and Irish nationalists.
The strike leaves Northern Ireland’s 1.9 million people without a functioning government to make important decisions at a time when living costs are rising and unpaid bills strain a strained public health system.
The DUP resigned from government in protest of new trade rules introduced after Brexit in 2020 that imposed customs checks and other hurdles on goods moving into Northern Ireland from other parts of the UK.
The checks were imposed to maintain an open border between the north and EU neighbor the Republic of Ireland, a key pillar of the Northern Ireland peace process. However, the DUP says a new east-west customs border would undermine Northern Ireland’s standing in the UK.
In February 2023, the UK and EU agreed to a deal that eased customs checks and other hurdles for goods entering Northern Ireland from other parts of the UK, but it was not enough for the DUP, which continues to boycott the country. .
Teachers, nurses and other public sector workers in Northern Ireland went on a 24-hour strike this month demanding that politicians return to government and give them long-delayed pay increases. The British government has agreed to give Northern Ireland more than 3 billion pounds ($3.8 billion) for public services, but only if Belfast executives can get back on their feet and run it.