Stormont crisis: DUP to block Speaker in organ donation law recall

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) will not nominate a new Speaker when Stormont is recalled on Tuesday, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has told DUP members.

Assembly members are due to meet in a further bid to elect a Speaker so they can implement a new organ donation law.

They were urged to act by the family of a child who needs a heart transplant.

But writing to DUP members, Sir Jeffrey said it was "disgraceful" that organ donation was "being used as blackmail for the return of devolution".

He made the comments in a letter to party members over the weekend in which he explained that the DUP would not be pressurised into dropping its boycott of Stormont until its concerns over the Northern Ireland Protocol are resolved.

"We will not be nominating a Speaker on Tuesday," Sir Jeffrey said in his letter, first reported by the PA news agency.

"Westminster is sovereign and can resolve the issue quickly."

The Northern Ireland Assembly cannot carry out its business or pass any new laws without a Speaker in post.

The DUP has repeatedly blocked the election of a new Speaker as part of its protest over the protocol - a set of post-Brexit trade rules which changed the way goods are moved between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

However, the family of a six-year-old boy from Belfast, Dáithí Mac Gabhann, who needs a heart transplant, has campaigned for Stormont politicians to return to the assembly to change the rules on organ donation.

The Organ and Consent Bill - also known as Dáithí's Law - would mean that all adults in Northern Ireland would be considered as a potential organ donor after their death, unless they specifically stated otherwise.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where an "opt-out" organ donation system is not in place.

However, additional legislation is needed to specify which organs and tissues are covered under the opt-out system and for that assembly members would have to take their seats.

The DUP has argued that Dáithí's Law can be implemented by MPs at Westminster in the absence of a functioning assembly.

But last week, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said a proposal to take the legislation through Westminster instead of Stormont would take too long to complete and he urged assembly members to resolve the issue themselves.