May must stop ‘pussyfooting around over direct rule’

THERESA MAY must stop “pussyfooting around” and call Sinn Fein’s bluff by imposing direct rule on Northern Ireland in a move which will bolster Brexit negotiations, Lord Trimble has said.

The peer, a former leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement, said the current situation was “unsustainable”.

His intervention comes after the DUP refused to agree to Sinn Fein demands for legal protections for the Irish language and said there was “no prospect” of a deal in Northern Ireland.

The collapse in negotiations places the Good Friday Agreement in jeopardy and represents a blow to the Prime Minister’s authority as she tries to finalise a Brexit deal over the Irish border.

Theresa Villiers, a former Northern Ireland secretary, said that it appeared to be “inevitable” that Westminster would set Northern Ireland’s budget. However the Government wants to avoid implementing direct rule.

Lord Trimble told The Daily Telegraph: “I would prefer to see full-blown direct rule. The Secretary of State is pretending not to run things but in fact is doing so without a statutory basis. The present situation is not sustainable. The Government should stop pussy-footing around and be prepared to say boo to Sinn Fein. Direct rule will end the moment they say they are going to step up to the plate.”

However Lord Bew, a cross-bench peer who worked on the Good Friday Agreement, warned that direct rule would “undermine” Brexit.

A No10 spokesman said Mrs May had spoken to both the DUP and Sinn Fein on the crisis, adding: “In both phone calls [she] expressed her disappointment that an agreement had not yet been reached despite recent progress being made by everyone involved.”