Micheál Martin and Rishi Sunak to discuss NI protocol at first official meeting

Rishi Sunak is expected to say he is "determined" to restore powersharing at Stormont.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin is set to meet the British prime minister for their first bilateral since his election.

Leaders are gathering for the British Irish Council in Blackpool.

It will mark the first formal meeting between Mr Martin and Mr Sunak since his election, though the two chatted briefly at Cop27.

Brexit, the Northern Ireland Protocol and the cost of living are expected to be high on the agenda.

It is the first time since Gordon Brown in 2007 that a British prime minister has attended the British Irish Council.

The body was established after the Good Friday Agreement to build relations between Ireland, England, the devolved governments of the UK and Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Jersey.

With the British government kicking out the deadline for fresh elections in Northern Ireland there is cautious hope a deal can be done on the Protocol with the new administration in Downing Street.

Mr Sunak is expected to say he is "determined" to restore powersharing at Stormont.

Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris says he is hopeful extending deadlines to form an Executive will allow for talks to progress.

"I've been talking to all the political parties, I've been talking to businesses, to community groups, to ordinary folk on the streets and no one wanted an election," said Mr Heaton-Harris.

"I have now done something that has created the time and space for conversations to take place and the Executive hopefully can reform."

Mr Sunak's attendance is being seen as a potential thawing of relations between Dublin and London, which Mr Martin has admitted have been frayed at best.