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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Haroon Siddique (now) and Kevin Rawlinson (earlier)

Deal 'close' on power sharing in Northern Ireland – as it happened

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald
Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald. Photograph: Barry Cronin/AFP/Getty Images

Summary

Thanks for reading and all your comments today. Here is a summary of the day’s events:

  • Theresa May has said that she believes a new power-sharing agreement can be reached in Northern Ireland “very soon”. The prime minister was speaking after talks with her Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar and the five main parties in Northern Ireland.
  • Talking about Brexit, Vardakar said a comprehensive customs and trade agreement was the best way to avoid any new barriers and that they had agreed to work together to see how that can be achieved.
  • The deputy chief executive of Oxfam, Penny Lawrence, has resigned over the charity’s handling of abuse allegations against its staff in Haiti. She said she was programme director at the time the alleged abuse took place.
  • The international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, announced a series of measures to prevent a repeat of scandal engulfing Oxfam after meeting the charity’s chief executive and chair of trustees. But she did not announce any cuts to its funding, as she had threatened beforehand.

The International Development Secretary, Penny Mordaunt has released a statement about her meeting his morning with the Oxfam chief executive, Mark Goldring, and the charity’s chair of trustees, Caroline Thomson.

She said:

Oxfam made a full and unqualified apology – to me, and to the people of Britain and Haiti - for the appalling behaviour of some of their staff in Haiti in 2011, and for the wider failings of their organisation’s response to it.

Mordaunt said the charity did not inform the Department for International Development at the time that this case involved sexual misconduct or beneficiaries but had committed to providing full details of those involved to their home countries.

She added:

But assurances are not enough so I have asked them to confirm to DFID by the end of the week precisely how they will handle any forthcoming allegations around safeguarding - historic or live - in a way in which the public can have confidence. We expect this process to include an independent and external element of scrutiny.

She announced four steps she has taken\will take:

  • a letter to all UK charities working overseas to do more and requesting they confirm they have referred all concerns on specific safeguarding cases;
  • a new unit to urgently review safeguarding across all parts of the aid sector;
  • stepping up Dfid’s work to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse across the UN and other international organisations;
  • t a safeguarding summit before the end of the month with the aid sector and alongside UK counterparts, where we will agree a set of actions to strengthen safeguarding processes and mechanisms; and
  • she will demand that all donors and development organisations show leadership and take action alongside the UK.

Theresa May and Leo Varadkar are to work together to come up with a new plan to achieve a frictionless Irish border post Brexit that does not involve Northern Ireland staying in the customs union and the single market in the event the UK leaves both arrangements.

But the taoiseach admitted it was the “tricky bit” of the Brexit egotiations. Varadkar told reporters after bilateral talks in Belfast that they the two sides “were very much of the view” that this was a “last resort” and should be avoided

In December, the EU and London agreed three options to achieve an invisible border. The first option was to achieve this through an overall EU-UK deal. If this was not possible, the UK could come up with a bespoke solution. If neither of those were achievable then both sides would agree to “full alignment” of regulations north and south of the border. Varadkar told reporters:

The two governments are very much of the view that the agreement that was made back in December stands and we both prefer option A as the best option...

[We believe] a comprehensive customs and trade agreement is the best way we can avoid any new barriers and we have agreed to work together to see how that can be achieved in the coming weeks and months,.

The best solution is not “the backstop” as I call it, ”the last resort” as Theresa May calls it, but option A ensuring we can have a new relationship between UK and the EU.

We agreed we would work together on the official level on how that would be achieved.

Theresa May is up now. She says she has had “full and frank” conversations with the five parties and “there is the basis of an agreement”.

The prime minister says it should be possible to have a functioning executive up and running “very soon”

The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, is up before Theresa May. He says the Irish government and UK option are both of the opinion that the agreement made in December stands - that the best option is to avoid a hard border and have a free trade and customs agreement involving Britain and Ireland.

With no reason given, Downing Street press officers have refused the Guardian access to the prime minister. Theresa May is holding a briefing for regional papers after a brief statement to the media outside Stormont House. Curious to say the least...

The Sinn Fein leader, Mary Lou McDonald, said she believed the politicians
at Stormont are close to an agreement. She said:

We are serious about power sharing...this is the week.

McDonald said the Sinn Fein delegation did not meet the DUP today but
rather only the two prime ministers.
She added that she told Theresa May that taking Northern Ireland out of the single market and customs union post-Brexit would be “disastrous and reckless”.

The Sinn Fein leader, Mary Lou McDonald, said there is “nothing insurmountable if there is political will to reach an agreement”.

She said:

We are serious about a democratic platform that serves all of our people.

She expressed her hope that the sentiments were the same on the unionist side.

Updated

Arlene Foster confirmed tonight that the Democratic Unionist Party has not agreed to a deal with Sinn Fein yet but the DUP leader said there had “some good progress” in the talks so far.

She said she wanted an agreement on the core divisive issue of language but not one that sought domination over any one community.

Her response after meeting Theresa May this afternoon suggests the DUP are still in the game in terms of securing an agreement but as has been indicated all day it is going to take longer than a one day prime ministerial visit to Belfast.

Colum Eastwood, the leader of the smaller nationalist party, the SDLP, said the people
of Northern Ireland were “crying out” for a deal to be done.

As Theresa May and her Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar hold talks with the parties represented in the Northern Ireland Assembly here at Stormont today, there are some indications that a compromise may be close on another issued dividing the DUP and Sinn Fein - gay marriage equality.

Several attempts to introduce legislation recognising LGBT marriage in the last Stormont parliament were shot down by the DUP using a special veto power known as the Petition of Concern or POC.

The POC was devised to ensure one community on either side of the sectarian divide would not have policies imposed on them that they would perceive as discriminatory or oppressive. However, the DUP deployed the POC to sabotage a majority in favour of same sex marriage legislation. They did this by claiming such a law did not have a cross community majority in the devolved parliament.

There now appears to be movement towards a compromise on this issue with the understanding the POC will be subject to a review process, which might exclude issues such as gay marriage from the veto. Gay rights and human rights organisations would be unhappy that this part of the deal would only result in a review of the POC veto process but it might open the possibility of one assembly member in a restored parliament proposing a private member’s bill to introduce gay marriage equality.

Belfast Gay Pride takes place on 5 August last year in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Belfast Gay Pride takes place on 5 August last year in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Philip Hammond, who, along with fellow soft Brexit advocate, Amber Rudd, will not be joining cabinet colleagues making keynote speeches on the UK’s Brexit plans - leading to allegations he has been gagged - will nevertheless be meeting some important European allies over the next fortnight.

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has been talking about the scandal engulfing Oxfam.

Lawrence started at Oxfam in 2006 as its international programmes director and, according to her profile on the charity’s website, she has 30 years’ experience in the development field. The profile reads:

Outside Oxfam, I am chair of Refugee Action and also sit on various advisory committees, eg the Oxford University’s Centre for the Study of African Economies, and Ikea’s sustainability advisory board. I was Chair of ICVA (International Council of Voluntary Agencies) from 2012-2015.

I am a passionate advocate of women’s rights and economic leadership, building resilience in vulnerable communities and cross-sectoral collaboration, especially with big business.

Updated

More on the resignation of Penny Lawrence as deputy chief executive of Oxfam, the charity under fire for its handling of abuse allegations against its staff in Haiti: In a statement just released, Lawrence said she was “deeply sad” to announce her departure. She added:

Over the last few days, we have become aware that concerns were raised about the behaviour of staff in Chad, as well as Haiti, that we failed to adequately act upon. It is now clear that these allegations – involving the use of prostitutes and which related to behaviour of both the country director and members of his team in Chad – were raised before he moved to Haiti.

As programme director at the time, I am ashamed that this happened on my watch and I take full responsibility.

I am desperately sorry for the harm and distress that this has caused to Oxfam’s supporters, the wider development sector and most of all the vulnerable people who trusted us.

It has been such a privilege to work for such an amazing organisation that has done and needs to continue to do such good in the world.

Mark Goldring, Oxfam’s chief executive, said:

I deeply respect Penny’s decision to accept personal responsibility. Like us, she is appalled at what happened and is determined to do what is best for Oxfam and the people we exist to help.

I would like to place on record my sincere thanks for the years of dedicated service that Penny has given to Oxfam and the fight against poverty around the world.

Updated

Senior Oxfam boss resigns

Oxfam confirms Penny Lawrence, its deputy chief executive, is resigning from her post.

Oxfam’s deputy chief executive, Penny Lawrence, who has resigned
Oxfam’s deputy chief executive, Penny Lawrence, who has resigned Photograph: Charlotte Ball/Oxfam/PA

A statement is expected soon and we’ll bring you that once we get it.

Updated

Downing Street has refused to say it has full confidence in senior government officials after Patel’s claims that people in DfID knew about wider problems of sex abuse in the aid sector.

Patel told Pienaar’s Politics on BBC Radio 5 Live: “People knew in DfID, I raised this directly with my department at the time.” Asked if there had been a cover-up culture, Patel said:

Well, put it this way: My former department did not raise this issue with me. I raised it with them through my own investigations and my own research.

Asked if the prime minister, Theresa May, retained full confidence in senior DfID officials, a Number 10 spokesman said:

The prime minister, of course, has full confidence in the secretary of state to lead this department, a department which has already taken action on this issue.

One of Patel’s predecessors at DfID, Andrew Mitchell, told Sky News this morning that Oxfam had reported some problems to the department while he was there, but only gave “part of the story”.

Updated

The former international development secretary, Prit Patel, has been outspoken on the Oxfam scandal, writing in Monday’s Daily Telegraph that it is “the tip of the iceberg”.

Whitehall sources are stressing that Patel outlined the concerns she had about sexual abuse in her United Nations general assembly (UNGA) speech last year and pointed out a series of actions taken while she was secretary of state. The comments indicate that they believe civil servants did act properly, although they did also say Penny Mordaunt’s call for the highest standards includes for those in the department.

I understand Priti Patel raised the question of sexual abuse within the development sector in a face-to-face meeting with Theresa May ahead of the UNGA speech. In that speech, she told the general assembly:

Appallingly, we have actually seen child rape, sexual exploitation and abuse carried out under the UN flag – and not just by peacekeepers or in peace operations. These deplorable crimes have been committed against children and vulnerable people - the very people the UN is mandated to protect.

The Department for Work and Pensions DWP has spent more than £100m in a little more than two years on administering reviews and appeals against disability benefits, figures show.

Tens of millions of pounds a year are also spent by the Ministry of Justice on the appeals, about two-thirds of which were won by claimants in the past 12 months.

As Oxfam officials are hauled before the international development secretary in London, Haiti’s ambassador to the UK says the country wants the names of the aid workers accused of paying possibly underage sex workers.

Bocchit Edmond said the country was “shocked and appalled” by the way Oxfam allowed the senior workers in question to leave the country without reporting them to the Haitian authorities. He told the Guardian:

For the executive to know these crimes were committed and to allow those people to leave without informing the authorities is wrong. We might be dealing with a paedophile ring. It was a crime. Prostitution is illegal and we believe they may have been underage kids.

The Scottish National party’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, has ruled himself out of the party’s depute leadership race, saying he wants to concentrate on his role leading the MP group and representing his constituency.

He was widely expected to put himself forward to succeed Angus Robertson, the party’s former Westminster leader, who stood down as depute earlier this month. But Blackford told the Press and Journal newspaper:

I am very much enjoying leading the group and I think there is an immense task over the coming period getting through the morass of Brexit.

I take seriously the responsibilities I’ve got as leader in Westminster and supporting the government in Holyrood.

If I was depute leader as well, something would have to give. I think it is maybe simply too much to ask.

He later tweeted:

James Dornan, the MSP for Glasgow Cathcart, is the only candidate to have declared so far. Robertson’s successor is expected to be announced at the party’s conference in Aberdeen in June.

The international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, is in a meeting with Oxfam officials at the moment, DfID says. She is due to meet the Charity Commission afterwards and the department expects to issue an update later this afternoon. We will, of course, bring you any news as soon as we have it.

Updated

Theresa May has just arrived at Stormont House. She received a welcome kiss in the cheek from Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley ahead of a round of talks with the local parties over the next few hours.

Theresa May has arrived for talks at Stormont.

The prime minister, Theresa May, will attend the Bombardier plane factory in east Belfast before making the short journey to the Stormont parliamentary estate.

She will address workers at the plant, which had been under threat following the court case in the United States rival aerospace giant Boeing took against Bombardier.

The latter firm won the legal battle in the US courts, despite Boeing’s claims the Canadian-owned aircraft manufacturer had received unfair state support. May is expected to pledge her continued support for Bombardier and the Belfast plant and its workforce.

The Conservative MP, Andrew Mitchell, who was the international development secretary when Oxfam was initially investigating the Haiti scandal in 2011, says the charity did tell his department about the problem, but only gave “part of the story”.

Asked by Sky News what he knew at the time, he said:

The answer is nothing on the scandal that is before us at the moment. Oxfam did report the matter to the department for international development but they didn’t specify the nature of what had gone wrong. As a result of that, because the nature wasn’t identified, it wasn’t escalated to me as secretary of state.

Had Oxfam been totally open with officials, then officials undoubtedly would have told me as secretary of state and, of course, I would have taken the requisite action.

Mitchell said the problem must be kept in perspective, lauding the large quantity of good work carried out by British aid organisations across the world. But he said:

The rules at the time are not clear but, certainly, they (Oxfam officials) were wrong not to specify the full nature of the problem with which they were grappling. They should have told officials everything and not given them only part of the story and, had they done so - had they been more open, they wouldn’t be in the trouble which they are in today.

Updated

Democratic Unionist sources are indicating the much-hyped deal between them and Sinn Fein, aimed at restoring power-sharing devolved government to Belfast, is far from done.

This would mean Theresa May is taking something of a gamble today by coming to Northern Ireland in the expectation a positive result is going to come out of the talks.

DUP insiders say the party is nervous about the nature of any compromise over language and culture.

They fear Sinn Fein will portray any Irish Language Act element to a three-part deal on all languages and cultures as a victory and, in turn, alienate the DUP’s base.

To underline the problems the DUP high command faces, the party is already under fire on its right flank by its former MEP, Jim Allister, who is now the leader of the hardline Traditional Unionist Voice.

Allister has claimed the Irish Language Act will be shrouded with “tartan ribbon” – an allusion to an amended piece of legislation for the Ulster Scots language and culture.

The North Antrim assembly member has predicted that, if the deal is done, Sinn Fein will use it to demand full parity between Irish and English from road signs to court cases and spark a new culture war in Northern Ireland.

With lone, but strident voices like Allister’s to the DUP’s right, its leader Arlene Foster and her team will need time to sell any tri-partite deal to their grassroots. The attitude of the Ulster Unionist Party, which is also part of the talks process, could be critical here.

Although the minority unionist force if the UUP takes a hardline against the deal, it will make it even harder for Foster et al to reach a compromise.

Updated

Any deal to restore a power-sharing, cross-community government in Northern Ireland will either be made or broken on the issue of language.

One of Sinn Fein’s core demands has been the creation of an Irish Language Act to give Gaelic the same legal status as English.

Unionists - in particular the DUP - have resisted this, arguing it would not only be too costly, but would also lead to daily culture wars over street signs and the way court cases are conducted and would hollow out British identity in the region.

One way around this would be to create a parallel act that would give special status to Ulster Scots and Orange culture, which the DUP could claim as their own victory from the talks.

Here are some core facts about language and cultural identity issues that have plagued these negotiations:

  • In the 2011 census, 179,000 people, or 11% in the region, claimed some knowledge of Irish. But, when it came to Irish as their main language, this fell to 4,045. However, Gaelic language activists point out that there are in excess of 6,000 children now at Irish-first schools and that that sector is growing.
  • From the same census figures, more than 140,000 people say they speak Ulster Scots. However, the definition of Ulster Scots itself is contentious because many experts dispute that it is a full-blown language, saying it is a distinct dialect.
  • A separate Culture Act could also be contentious if it were to guarantee the right of Orange parades to march on Northern Irish streets, given the territorial disputes connected to loyalist demonstrations in some areas in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The Press Association has provided a helpful timeline of the events that lead us to today’s talk aimed at restoring the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.

  • January 2017: The executive falls after the deputy first minister, Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness, resigns in protest over the handling of a botched green energy scheme by the first minister, the DUP’s Arlene Foster.
  • March 2017: Sinn Fein makes major gains in the snap assembly election. McGuinness dies. Foster and Sinn Fein’s leader in Stormont, Michelle O’Neill, are pictured shaking hands at his funeral. A statutory deadline to form a new executive within three weeks of the election falls.
  • May 2017: Successive deadlines for the return of a power-sharing administration in Stormont are missed or superseded when Theresa May calls a snap general election.
  • June 2017: The DUP strikes a deal to help Theresa May stay in power at the head of a minority government. This adds a further complication to negotiations, with the government in Westminster forced to reject claims its impartiality has been undermined.
  • November 2017: Deadlines for power-sharing talks in June, July and October are all missed and there is a significant step towards direct rule in November, when the then Northern Ireland secretary, James Brokenshire, set Stormont’s 2017-18 budget at Westminster. Gerry Adams announces he is to step down as Sinn Fein president.
  • January 2018: Brokenshire leaves the government due to ill health and the former culture secretary, Karen Bradley, takes over.
  • February 2018: A new round of all-party talks leads to little outward sign of progress. But more positive noises start to emerge from the corridors of Stormont. Mary Lou McDonald is formally elected the new Sinn Fein president and O’Neill becomes vice president.

Updated

Theresa May will fly to Belfast on Monday, amid renewed optimism that a deal to restore the power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland is close.

May will meet Northern Irish political parties in Stormont, as well as the republic’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar.

Updated

The billionaire investor, George Soros, has pledged extra funds to support efforts to fight Brexit after coming under fire for handing over a £400,000 donation to the pro-EU campaign group, Best for Britain.

My colleague, Jessica Elgot, reports that Soros has indicated the money was directly linked to the campaign against him in the rightwing press.

Oxfam will not be the only organisation under pressure today. The sector’s regulator, the Charity Commission, will also be expected to answer questions about how the scandal was able to happen under its nose.

The watchdog’s director of investigations, Michelle Russell, said it was not told the full story at the time Oxfam first investigated the misconduct allegations in 2011. On Monday morning, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

We’ve made very clear that had the details of what has come out over the last few days been told to us, we would have dealt with this very differently.

We were categorically told there was no abuse of beneficiaries involved in the allegations. Nor were we told that there were issues or possible issues around possible crimes, including those involving minors.

What we did know - and it was made public at the time - is that it resulted in the sacking of several members of staff and resignations. We were assured that Oxfam had investigated it fully.

Besides the meeting with Oxfam on Monday, the commission has a full day of talks with the charity scheduled for Wednesday. Asked if the problem of exploitation could be more widespread in the charity sector, Russell said:

The charity sector is not immune from these sorts of allegations and incidents happening. We have about 1,000 incidents a year reported to us by charities involving safeguarding issues.

What is really important - and perhaps this hasn’t happened in the past so much - is that there is a light of transparency and accountability on it.

Oxfam to fight for its future amid sex abuse scandal

Good morning and welcome to the politics live blog. Parliament may be in recess but that doesn’t mean it’s all quiet on the political front.

In London, the international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, is preparing for a crunch meeting with officials from Oxfam and the Charity Commission as the aid organisation amid the deepening crisis sparked by revelations in the Times newspaper last week.

There was no easing of the pressure on Oxfam over the weekend and Monday morning’s papers heaped on more bad news. There were allegations in the Times that the charity ignored prior warnings about some of the staff at the centre of the Haiti sexual abuse scandal and, writing in the Daily Telegraph, the former international development secretary claimed the accusations are just the tip of the iceberg.

The Guardian, the Financial Times and the I paper each focus on the importance of Monday’s meeting for the future of Oxfam, while the Daily Mail highlights the shamefaced apology offered by the aid organisation.

Elsewhere in the political landscape, the UK prime minister and the Irish taoiseach will travel to Northern Ireland, amid growing speculation a deal to restore the power-sharing government in Stormont is imminent.

In his first major speech as the new rail minister, Jo Johnson is calling for diesel-only trains to be taken off the tracks by 2040. Meanwhile, the transport committee is launching an inquiry into the InterCity East Coast rail franchise.

The foreign secretary Boris Johnson has spoken of witnessing “sheer devastation” during a visit to northern Rakhine state in Burma, where minority Rohingya Muslims have fled in recent months.

Updated

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