Recent election winners Sinn Fein say they are willing to get to work, but the Democratic Unionist Party is boycotting the legislature over post-Brexit trade arrangements known as the Northern Ireland protocol that impose border checks on goods leaving Great Britain for Northern Ireland.

The protocol was introduced to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland and some Unionists say it undermines Northern Ireland's place in the United Kingdom.

Johnson's government has threatened unilateral changes to the protocol if negotiations with the EU fail.