Rishi Sunak meets Stormont parties on first NI visit

Rishi Sunak will continue his first visit to Northern Ireland as prime minister on Friday by promoting what Downing Street described as the return of naval shipbuilding to Belfast.

A consortium, including Belfast's Harland and Wolff, was chosen for a £1.6bn Ministry of Defence contract to build three new Royal Navy ships.

The PM would highlight the project's "UK-wide nature", said Downing Street.

On Thursday Mr Sunak met the leaders of Stormont's five main parties.

Political leaders said their meetings with Mr Sunak focused on restoring power-sharing, the stalled energy payment scheme and the nurses' strike.

Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill said the meeting was a "useful exchange".

However, she also urged the prime minister to work "at pace" to resolve outstanding issues.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said Mr Sunak indicated that the Northern Ireland Protocol talks were likely to intensify.

Speaking ahead of his visit, Mr Sunak said: "Northern Ireland - its people and its future - are rightly at the centre of our shipbuilding ambitions.

"The thousands of high value jobs and the skills that are gained from delivering it now will help to lay the foundations of prosperity for tomorrow."

Sinn Féin's Ms O'Neill said "more than warm words and good mood music" were needed to find an agreed way forward on resolving the protocol and restoring power-sharing.

"We have been here for far too long in this space without an executive so I made the case to him directly this needs to be done speedily," she said.

"[The UK government] need to be directly involved in the conversations and to get an agreed way forward and to get it now."

After meeting the prime minister, Sir Jeffrey of the DUP said it was likely the negotiations on the Northern Ireland Protocol would run until early February and it was not a question of how long it took but about getting it right.

Northern Ireland has been without a fully-functioning government since February, when the DUP walked out of the executive in protest over the protocol.

Unionists argue the post-Brexit trading arrangement undermines Northern Ireland's position in the UK, as it keeps the nation aligned with some EU trade rules to ensure goods can move freely across the Irish land border.

Sir Jeffrey said there needed to be flexibility on the EU side as there was no space for a deal to be struck "given the limitations of their negotiating mandate".

Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said the prime minister's visit was important, and that he spoke "openly and candidly" with Stormont politicians.

But, she added, the government needed to "step up" to ensure the protocol issue is dealt with.

"We don't want a deal that will cause further problems down the line," Ms Long said.

"They've got one more shot at this and they've got to get it right."

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said he raised issues about workers' pay and the collapse of power-sharing at Stormont.

He said talks about the protocol were going quite well and that he believed it would be resolved but there were lessons to be learned.

"We can't keep playing fast and loose with democracy and power-sharing because someday it won't be there," he said.

"What we are looking for is action."