Alliance conference: Real consequences if Stormont not reformed – Long

By Jayne McCormack

BBC News NI political correspondent

Failure to reform the power-sharing institutions at Stormont will have “real-world consequences,” Alliance leader Naomi Long has said.

She made the remarks at her party’s annual conference in Belfast.

She warned that the Northern Ireland Secretary must do “heavy lifting” on the issue or he will carry the blame for future collapse.

Power-sharing at Stormont returned a month ago following a two-year boycott by the DUP.

Alliance has called for changes to how Northern Ireland’s political system is structured, so that one party cannot block the formation of an executive in the future.

It has also suggested reworking Stormont’s cross-community voting structures to end “mutually reinforced vetoes”, the Alliance leader insisted.

She made her comments after the Tánaiste (Irish deputy PM) Micheál Martin made a similar call at the Alliance conference on Friday evening, saying “it makes sense” to look now at reform.

Mrs Long welcomed those remarks, adding that tinkering around the edges of reform will be “merely a sticking plaster” that will not hold.

Image source, PA Media

She appealed directly to the UK government: “Many of you will know already that the secretary of state is a football referee but fewer may be aware that he is also a keen weightlifter.

“Well, Chris, I’m calling on you to step up and do some seriously heavy lifting on reform of the institutions, sooner rather than later, unless you want to be permanently burdened with a large share of the blame for any future collapse.”

Alliance is undoubtedly a party buoyed by recent electoral successes.

On arrival at the Stormont Hotel – the regular haunt for their conferences – a senior party member told me this would likely be their last year here due to outgrowing the space.

But winning votes is one thing, on their promises of change they now face the immediate challenge of following through.

And there’s the dynamic of seeking significant changes to Stormont’s structures while operating from within them.

Would they have been better off in opposition in order to legitimately make that case?

Not so insists the Alliance leader.

But demanding reform and actually delivering it are two very different things – and it’s not those inside the conference room that the party still need to persuade.

But the government has said changes are not yet being considered and any moves towards reform will require the agreement of all the Stormont parties.

Mrs Long also said that in order to have confidence that the last collapse was the last-ever suspension, sustainable government was a necessity.

The Alliance leader criticised the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and said his government “has nothing left to offer but tax cuts for the rich and misery for the rest”.

She added: “The only thing this morally bankrupt government can do to protect democracy now is to call a General Election.

“And the sooner the better.”

The party currently has 17 assembly members (MLAs) at Stormont and, as a result, was entitled to two ministerial jobs in the executive when it was re-formed.

Mrs Long was re-elected as Stormont’s justice minister, a post she also held from January 2020 until 2022, when the executive collapsed.

North Down MLA Andrew Muir was selected as the agriculture minister, the first time Alliance has held that brief.

Mrs Long made her speech ahead of a general election that is expected to take place at some point this year.

In 2019, the party won the North Down seat for the first time and will hope to retain it, as well as targeting several other constituencies.

Mrs Long, who was the MP for East Belfast from 2010 until 2015, has said she is focused on her role as justice minister and is not distracted by the possibility of standing again at the upcoming election.

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