Secretary of State gives updates on election and £400 energy payment

In an interview with BBC Radio Ulster, Mr. Heaton-Harris said he will be obliged to call an election after January 19 if a new Stormont Executive has not been formed.

“I’ll still have that legal duty, and that still stays with me,” he said.

During the interview, he was also asked about the delivery of a £400 energy bill discount to the people of Northern Ireland.

“What I can say to people today is they will get the £400 payment, the problem has been ... there is no Executive which we would normally have passed the money through to get to people,” he said.

Mr. Heaton-Harris said he has had a conversation with Business Secretary Grant Shapps and Energy Minister Graham Stuart.

“I hope you will be able to hear very, very soon how that £400 will hit the pockets of people in Northern Ireland,” he added.

Mr. Heaton-Harris rejected a suggestion that his credibility has been harmed by not calling a Stormont election after suggesting he would.

He told the BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme that he has to cut the salaries of all MLAs, rather than singling out the DUP.

“There has been legal opinion taken in the past by former Secretaries of State that demonstrate it would be unbelievably difficult and judicially reviewed if I didn’t do it in a fair and proportionate way, which is what this is,” he said.

He also defended his decision not to extend deadlines earlier, saying: “Everyone had been hoping ... that we’d have been able to demonstrate to the Unionist community and their elected representatives that work was afoot on the major problem [that is, certain objections to] the Northern Ireland Protocol.

“I was talking to all the political parties, I was talking to business representative groups, I was talking to community groups, I was talking to people on the street, and I did clock that people were saying that no-one wants an election before Christmas, so forgive me for being a politician that listens,” he said.