Oral Answers to Questions

Christian Matheson Excerpts

Wednesday 6th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Yes indeed.

[Christian Matheson (City of Chester) (Lab)]

5. What progress has been made towards the re-establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

[The Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office (John Penrose)]

We debated this point at some length in the Northern Ireland Budget (Anticipation and Adjustments) (No. 2) Bill yesterday, and the frustration from all sides at the lack of a Northern Ireland Executive was palpable. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State mentioned earlier, she has met representatives of the five main political parties in Northern Ireland and the Irish Government recently, and I can confirm that discussions have been ongoing since then.

[Christian Matheson]

Does the Minister share my concern at the increasing polarisation of politics in the UK, and particularly in Northern Ireland? Is he satisfied that there is sufficient diversity and pluralism within political representation there to make the re-establishment of the Assembly a success?

[John Penrose]

We elect the politicians we deserve. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that there are periodic calls for a greater variety of representation and range of representation in this Parliament and, I am sure, in Stormont. The difficulty in Northern Ireland is that Northern Ireland’s politics has been far more polarised for a long time. We are trying, collectively, on all sides, to usher it back towards the centre ground and co-operation at least.