London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Jul 31, 2025

UK postpones Northern Ireland election indefinitely

UK postpones Northern Ireland election indefinitely

Embarrassing U-turn by NI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris follows weeks of his insistence that a new vote must happen after Stormont’s collapse.

Northern Ireland will not face a pre-Christmas snap election — and may not face one until there’s a new Brexit breakthrough with the EU, U.K. officials have told POLITICO.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris on Friday postponed election plans — a U-turn first reported by POLITICO’s London Playbook — after previously insisting he would immediately call a new Northern Ireland Assembly election following last week’s collapse of Stormont.

Heaton-Harris’ aides had strongly briefed that the election would happen on December 15, barely seven months after the Irish republican Sinn Féin party topped the vote in the last assembly contest. Electoral officials had already mobilized 6,000 volunteers to staff 607 polling stations on December 15.

Instead, following consultations with the Irish government and local parties, Heaton-Harris announced Friday that no election would happen “ahead of the festive season.”

The secretary of state emphasized that he still faced a legal obligation to call a new vote based on “current legislation” — a signal that the U.K. was likely to escape that obligation by amending the law.

“Current legislation requires me to name a date for an election to take place within 12 weeks of 28 October. Next week I will make a statement in parliament to lay out my next steps,” he said.

While Heaton-Harris still retains legal wiggle room to hold a Stormont election up to January 19, officials in Belfast said this would not happen, given it would require parties to campaign door to door over Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

This means new rules will have to be passed. The officials, who spoke to POLITICO on condition they were not identified, said the U.K. government is preparing draft legislation to amend the Northern Ireland (Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern) Act for the second time in a year.

That act was last overhauled in February to give the assembly up to 24 weeks to form a cross-community government following an election. Otherwise, as amended, a new vote must be held following the expiry of that 24-week window — the rule now being delayed, and potentially overwritten again, by London.

One Belfast official said the most likely scenario would be to give Heaton-Harris new flexibility to set the next election date at a time when wider conditions suit it. This would allow a Stormont election re-run to be delayed indefinitely.

A focus of popular speculation is May 4, when Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. are already scheduled to hold elections to local councils.

By then, all sides hope, London and Brussels will have successfully concluded negotiations to reform how post-Brexit trade rules are enforced at Northern Irish ports — the dispute that has gridlocked power-sharing at Stormont. Those talks resumed at a technical level last month but have reported little progress.

“An agreement with the European Commission on revised arrangements for the [Northern Ireland trade] protocol would substantially improve the atmosphere and context for an assembly election,” one official said.

The main pro-British party, the Democratic Unionists, have insisted they won’t resume cooperation with Sinn Féin until authorities stop enforcing EU checks on goods arriving from the rest of the U.K., saying this so-called “Irish Sea border” undermines that union and pushes Northern Ireland toward an economic united Ireland.

In Dublin, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney welcomed the U.K. policy reversal because he said it “creates space for progress on other matters.”

So did Democratic Unionist leader Jeffrey Donaldson, who called for the U.K. government to pursue “a razor-sharp focus on getting a solution, whether by negotiation or legislation.”

Donaldson was referring to the DUP-backed Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which proposes to give the U.K. unilateral powers to override its commitments as part of the Brexit exit deal with the EU. That bill currently faces substantial opposition and likely amendment in the House of Lords amid fears that, if enacted, it could trigger a wider trade conflict with Europe.

Heaton-Harris, who was appointed by former U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss to the diplomatically treacherous Belfast post in September, survived last month’s reshuffle when Rishi Sunak entered Downing Street.

But senior Northern Ireland politicians and former secretaries of state questioned whether he could survive such a fundamental mishandling of his first policy decision.

“When you make a call, you have to make it stand. Now nobody knows where the secretary of state stands,” said Shaun Woodward, who was Labour’s last secretary of state for Northern Ireland. He described the Northern Ireland Office’s election signals as “a theater of the absurd.”

“Nobody thought an election would resolve anything,” said Peter Hain, Woodward’s predecessor at the NIO, who in 2007 oversaw the creation of the first DUP-Sinn Féin coalition government at Stormont, a watershed moment in the peace process. “I don’t think the secretary of state or the government know what they’re doing.”

John O’Dowd of Sinn Féin, who was infrastructure minister in Stormont’s caretaker power-sharing government, said Heaton-Harris “has made Liz Truss look competent and I thought that was impossible.”

Repeatedly in the run-up to Stormont’s inevitable collapse on October 28, when asked whether the government would change the 24-week rule to prevent this, Heaton-Harris claimed to have no choice in the matter and would call a new vote once the clock struck midnight.

After allowing Stormont to shut, he botched his first post-election comments, insisting after a day of confusion that a vote still would happen on an unknown date — and denied, when directly asked, that he was about to change course.

Friday’s handbrake turn followed meetings with the leaders of four Northern Ireland parties Tuesday and Coveney on Wednesday. All advised him to avoid an election and focus on a resolution of the U.K.-EU dispute over the trade protocol.

Some party leaders said a 2023 Stormont vote might be meaningful — if London and Brussels had agreed a solution to the dispute over trade rules before it happens.

Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie, whose moderate party opposes the protocol but also rejects the DUP’s obstruction of Stormont power-sharing, said he wasn’t willing to “stick the boot into the secretary of state” and thinks Heaton-Harris retains enough credibility to stay in post.

“It takes political courage to change your mind when you get something wrong,” Beattie said, adding that the 24-week rule on government formation “was too prescriptive anyway.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Former Judge Charged After Drunk Driving Crash Kills Comedian in Brazil
Jeff Bezos hasn’t paid a dollar in taxes for decades. He makes billions and pays $0 in taxes, LEGALLY
China Increases Use of Exit Bans Amid Rising U.S. Tensions
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Procter & Gamble to Raise U.S. Prices to Offset One‑Billion‑Dollar Tariff Cost
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
Botswana Seeks Controlling Stake in De Beers as Anglo American Prepares Exit
Trump Administration Proposes Repeal of Obama‑Era Endangerment Finding, Dismantling Regulatory Basis for CO₂ Emissions Limits
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
A family has been arrested in the UK for displaying the British flag
Mel Gibson refuses to work with Robert De Niro, saying, "Keep that woke clown away from me."
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
The British propaganda channel BBC News lies again.
Deputy attorney general's second day of meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell has concluded
Controversial March in Switzerland Features Men Dressed in Nazi Uniforms
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
Thai Civilian Death Toll Rises to 12 in Cambodian Cross-Border Attacks
TSUNAMI: Trump Just Crossed the Rubicon—And There’s No Turning Back
Over 120 Criminal Cases Dismissed in Boston Amid Public Defender Shortage
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
Trump Announces $550 Billion Japanese Investment and New Trade Agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
×