Rishi Sunak is taking a storm on the prime minister’s first visit to Northern Ireland

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Healthcare strike delays £600 energy payments, protocol negotiations and Stormont deadlock Prime Minister Rishi Sunak flew into Belfast on Thursday night on his first visit to Northern Ireland to be greeted with a host of issues.

While his two-day visit is primarily to celebrate the return of naval shipbuilding to Belfast, the Prime Minister held “informal” discussions with Stormont party leaders at the Culloden Estate and Spa on the slopes of the Hollywood Hills last night.

The reception was not for any “overtly political” reason, one source said, but it was expected that Sunak would be challenged on issues related to protocol and the return of Stormont regardless.

Downing Street also said the prime minister would meet businesses and communities in Northern Ireland.

It comes after the MoD announced in November that a consortium including Harland & Wolff was the preferred bidder for a £1.6bn naval shipbuilding contract.

“Northern Ireland — its people and its future — is at the heart of our shipbuilding ambitions,” Sunak said before his arrival, not to mention the political stalemate at Stormont.

Complementing the next generation of the Royal Navy’s global support vessels – to enhance our security at sea and around the world – there could be no better home to be found than Belfast, once the world’s largest shipyard, with its proud tradition of skill and expertise.

“Thousands of high-value jobs and the skills gained from offering them now will help lay the foundations for prosperity for the future.”

Speaking of the Tory leader’s visit, Sinn Féin Deputy Chair and First Minister-elect Michelle O’Neill bluntly said that any meeting with the prime minister must have a political outcome, and that she did not want “tea and sympathy”.

“I want a political meeting with the British Prime Minister,” she said.

“I want to know what he’s doing to get £600 (energy payments) into people’s pockets. I want to know what he’s doing to secure a deal on protocol and negotiate a way forward.

“So I have no desire to take tea and sympathize with the prime minister, what I want to see is a political outcome of such an association.”

DUP leader Sir Geoffrey Donaldson said it was “good to see him here in Northern Ireland”.

“I hope we will hear from the Prime Minister a renewal of his commitment to resolving the issues around the protocol, and to take the decisive action necessary to restore and all those places in the UK’s internal market,” he said.

News of Mr Sunak’s first official visit to Northern Ireland as Prime Minister came after Foreign Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris held talks with the Stormont parties.

The DUP refuses to re-enter a power-sharing government in Stormont until the issues related to the Northern Ireland Protocol are addressed.

This protocol is designed to prevent hard borders on the island of Ireland, and it does so by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods. In doing so, it established a trading border in the Irish Sea, which angered trade unionists who felt it hurt business and threatened Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom.

Negotiations between the UK government and the EU on issues related to protocol are under way, while progress on a bill that essentially tears up large parts of the House of Lords’ protocol legislation has been “paused” to allow more time for UK-EU talks.

After the talks, Mr Heaton-Harris said: “Northern Ireland’s parties and I share a great passion for Northern Ireland and its future. Today I have urged all parties to work together to restore executive power as soon as possible, reaffirming that this political stalemate cannot continue indefinitely, and that mutual legal assistance must fulfill all its duties to the people of NI.

“The UK government’s priority is to see the return of strong and domestically accountable government, in line with the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement. The people of Northern Ireland deserve to see their elected representatives perform for them in a fully functioning executive body.”

Feedback from party leaders indicated that little, if any, progress was made during the meeting with regard to the political crisis. “We covered a wide range of issues, including the ongoing negotiations between the UK government and the European Union,” said Mr Donaldson. “There is very little to report on that.”

Ms O’Neill said: “I think he (Heaton-Harris) is denied a plan. Even at this point we are still in a political bind.

“There were no specific proposals on how they would come up with an agreed way forward with the protocol.”

Alliance party deputy leader Stephen Fary said the UK government needed “ducks in a row” to address issues around protocol, while SDLP Stormont leader Matthew O’Toole said the meeting was “not terribly productive”.

“Nothing has changed, nothing has moved forward,” said Doug Beatty, leader of the Ulster Unionists.

On the other hand, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly welcomed the “important discussions” with European Commission Vice President Maros Sefkovic on the protocol.

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