Stormont leaders ‘should be joint first ministers’ – Westminster committee

Stormont’s first and deputy first ministers should be renamed joint first ministers, a Westminster committee has said.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has said it has “grave concerns” about the recommended reforms.

But Sinn Féin said it was time to learn lessons from what has and has not worked since the Good Friday Agreement.

The committee made the recommendations following an inquiry into the effectiveness of the institutions.

Northern Ireland has been without a government for 21 months.

This is due to the DUP’s protest against post-Brexit trade rules.

The committee published a report that runs to 100 pages, which sets out areas it believes should be reformed to improve political stability in Northern Ireland.

It argues that one of those changes should be to rebrand the first and deputy first ministers to “joint first ministers”.

Although the titles are different. both offices hold equal weight and one minister cannot act without the other.

But it cannot do so without the support of the DUP which, as the largest unionist party, is entitled to nominate the deputy first minister role.

The committee said that “there is no justifiable reason” why the titles should not be formally known as “joint first ministers”.

It has called on the government to consult with the Northern Ireland parties about the proposal and legislate for it to take effect for the start of the next assembly mandate.

The SDLP has previously advocated for this change while Alliance has also suggested a number of reforms to how Stormont operates.

The committee added: “An accurate representation of the jointness of the offices would, 25 years on, reinforce the agreement’s principle of parity of esteem between the two main communities and send a signal that the Executive Office acts in the interests of them both.

“This could begin to restore faith in the institutions at a time of crisis.”

The committee’s report also recommends changing how the Northern Ireland Assembly’s speaker is elected.

At present, it requires a majority of both unionists and nationalist assembly members in order to pass.

The DUP MP Carla Lockhart, who sits on the committee, said she has “grave concerns” about the recommendations made.

“The last 25 years couldn’t have happened without inbuilt protections for both unionists and nationalists and this report is just trying to set that aside.

“It’s trying to undermine that fact that unionism does not support what the government has done in recent months around the protocol and the Windsor Framework,” she added.

“We want to get back to consensus politics and we don’t believe that any sweeping new ways of working should be introduced to Northern Ireland and the assembly at this time.”

However a Sinn Féin spokesperson said that “25 years since the Good Friday Agreement, it’s imperative to learn lessons around what has worked, but also what hasn’t”.

The party said the DUP’s “current blockade” was “unfair on all those people who voted for real change last May, and in recent council elections, and who voted for parties to work together to deliver for all our people.”

The spokesperson said the outcome of the elections needed to be “respected and the Executive established without delay.”

“This would enable the assembly and Executive Review Committee set up under the Good Friday Agreement to do its work.”

UUP leader Doug Beattie said any changes to governance must be put before the people of Northern Ireland first.

“Our party have always called for a ‘factory reset’ to the settings of the Belfast Agreement – any changes to the process of governing must be put before the people of Northern Ireland.

“The principle of consent needs to be at the heart of any change.”

SDLP MP Claire Hanna said she believed there was an “appetite” for the proposals and help Stormont “get away from being manifested in deadlock and veto and division”.

“Perhaps if parties saw the show will go on without them and they don’t get to prevent all democratic oversight, they will want to join in,” she added.

Alliance MP Stephen Farry emphasised that it was important that the Good Friday Agreement “evolves with changing circumstances”.

“No one is in power at the moment because the system isn’t working and when it was working in the past it was so prone to collapse that the institutions only worked for about 60% of the time.

“We have to get away from the…