Stormont crisis will not delay Brexit process, says Theresa May

The political crisis in Belfast will not delay the process for Britain’s exit from the EU, British prime minister Theresa May has said.

Northern Ireland is facing a snap election following the resignation of deputy first minister Martin McGuinness.

The SNP’s Westminster leader Angus Robertson called on the prime minister to delay triggering Article 50 (seceding from the European Union) if voters go to the polls because it would leave Northern Ireland voiceless in the Brexit process.

“In these circumstances will she postpone Article 50 or will she just plough on regardless?” he asked.

Ms May said she wanted a swift resolution to the political crisis in Northern Ireland.

She added: “It is still the case that ministers are in place and that obviously there are executives in place, that we are still able to take the views of the Northern Ireland people.”

In the first session of prime minister’s questions of the new year, Ms May repeated her intention to set out more details about the government’s approach to Brexit soon.

Meanwhile, the Northern Ireland secretary has said he will continue to push for a resolution to the crisis engulfing Stormont despite a Sinn Féin insistence that a snap election is a must. The Northern secretary, James Brokenshire, acknowledged that a poll is a “high probability” but said he would keep engaging with the region’s feuding parties in a bid to avert it.

If consensus on a range of disputes between Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionists is not achieved by Monday, Mr Brokenshire is obliged by law to call an election, potentially for late February or early March.

“My focus is on the here and now, on what can be achieved now, on what opportunities there are, what the potential may be to bring people together, rather than see people be driven further apart,” he said.

Mr Brokenshire warned that finding agreement would be harder on the other side of a divisive election. His remarks came after apparently contradictory comments from senior Sinn Féin figures on the possibility of talks with the DUP ahead of a poll.

After meeting with Mr Brokenshire in Belfast, Sinn Féin health minister Michelle O’Neill said the UK government needed to press ahead and call a poll.

“We are not interested in trying to get into negotiations now — what we need is fundamental change,” she said.

“We believe the public need to have their say.”

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Ms May discussed the crisis on the phone on Tuesday night. They pledged to work together to find a way through the political storm that has threatened devolution.

The collapse of the institutions was triggered by Mr McGuinness’s resignation as deputy first minister on Monday. The Sinn Féin veteran’s move, in protest at the DUP’s handling of a botched renewable energy scheme, forced Ms Foster from her post as first minister.

The region faces the prospect of direct rule from Westminster being reintroduced if the fallout between the DUP and Sinn Féin cannot be resolved on the other side of an election.

While the looming collapse of power-sharing was triggered by the Renewable Heat Incentive affair — a scandal that has left Stormont with a £490m (€565m) bill — other disputes between the two main parties have been reignited by the furore.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin has called on the British government not to implement the so-called bedroom tax in Northern Ireland after the crisis at Stormont threatened planned mitigation pay outs. Senior party figure Conor Murphy said no parties in the region wanted to see social housing residents lose out due to the policy of reducing benefits to those deemed to have spare rooms.

His remarks came after a Stormont department confirmed that locally-devised support payments to around 34,000 householders could not be rolled out without the official endorsement of the trouble-hit executive.