Alliance leader says Stormont role 'should not be taken for granted'

Alliance leader Naomi Long is to warn that her party's role in the Northern Ireland Executive "should not be taken for granted".

Their continued participation in Stormont's power-sharing government remains a "balance", she is expected to tell her party's annual conference in Belfast.

Long will say she would support a "change in direction" if efforts to deliver key priorities in the four-party coalition are "frustrated by heel-dragging".

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is among the guests scheduled to address the conference on Saturday, which has the slogan of "hope not fear".

Long has led Alliance for nearly 10 years and also serves as justice minister in Northern Ireland's devolved government.

She is one of two Alliance ministers in the Stormont executive and her party is the third-largest in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

In her conference speech, Long is expected to say that politics locally and globally is increasingly "defined by fear".

The assembly member will claim that other parties seek to "distract from their poor record of delivery by keeping people afraid and divided".

She will say Alliance "is interested in what we can build together instead" and that "our future should be built on hope, not fear".

The conference this weekend is Alliance's third since devolution was restored in February 2024 following a two-year hiatus.

The institutions had been blocked by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in protest over post-Brexit trade rules, but they ended their boycott after a deal with the UK government.

Long will argue that "making government work" is important "not because it is easy, but because it matters".

The Alliance leader will say "hope in politics is built through delivery" but that her party's "participation in those institutions is a balance".

She is expected to say: "If we reach a point where our ability to deliver on key priorities is stymied by vetoes and frustrated by heel-dragging, then rest assured, I would be advocating a change in direction and I think I speak for all my colleagues when I say they would be following me.

"Our continued participation in the executive cannot and should not be taken for granted."

Burnham has been tipped as a possible contender to succeed Sir Keir Starmer as Labour leader and prime minister.

The Alliance Party said his keynote speech would include "his views on challenging the rise of populism in the modern world".

Before the conference, the Labour mayor is expected to meet with senior members of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).