UK election set to delay critical regional legislation

Senior officials in Northern Ireland and Scotland expressed frustration on Tuesday at delays to critical legislation because of the timing of the surprise UK general election called by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

A pre-election ban on any official action that could impact the July 4 vote means both devolved regions have to push back their programmes for government and other important fiscal and energy plans, potentially for months.

Northern Ireland’s Stormont assembly, which has only been back in business since February after a two year hiatus, approved a one-year budget on Tuesday but first minister Michelle O’Neill said a multiyear strategic plan would have to wait.

“The early advice the deputy first minister and myself are receiving is that it’s going to be very difficult to publish a programme for government now, in the midst of an election campaign,” she told the chamber. Stormont goes into recess on July 6 until September 1.

In Edinburgh, where John Swinney took over as first minister this month, the ruling Scottish Nationalist Party has had to postpone its programme for government, medium-term financial strategy, draft tax strategy, energy strategy and just transition plan.

The energy plan includes a proposal for a “presumption” against new oil and gas exploration, a contentious issue in the election given the importance of North Sea production to the fortunes of north-east Scotland.

A Scottish government official called the delays “very frustrating”. Holyrood is in recess from June 29 to September 1.

“Everybody understands the importance of purdah, however, stopping the important business of government for so long is something that no UK government would tolerate itself if the circumstances were reversed,” another Scottish official said.

Swinney has said the timing of the election, during school holidays in Scotland and Northern Ireland, is “disrespectful”.

Stormont returned this year with a nationalist Sinn Féin leader for the first time in its history. The body had been suspended since 2022 after the Democratic Unionist party pulled out of the power-sharing executive in a row over Brexit.

Matthew O’Toole, leader of the opposition at Stormont and a member of the small Social Democratic and Labour party, said the timing was a blow since Northern Ireland’s power-sharing executive “hasn’t really delivered all that much” in terms of substance since its restoration.

“There is a sense of frustration that progress on priorities was expected and this means that it will be delayed by weeks at a minimum and possibly months,” he told the Financial Times.

If Labour win the election as predicted, he said there was a hope that there would be a spending review that could yield more money for the cash-strapped region.

“Probably in some ways all the ministers are probably a bit pleased [to have] an alibi to say well, we can’t do anything until there’s a new UK government,” he added.