Executive's early promise has 'evaporated' - SDLP leader

The current Stormont Executive's "early promise has evaporated", the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) told their annual conference.

Claire Hanna said Northern Ireland's four-party coalition is offering "more chaff than change" with "big decisions kicked back into the long grass".

Stormont's larger parties have now turned to "raking over the past instead of a focus on the future", she said.

The conference in Belfast on Saturday was Hanna's third as leader of the SDLP, which is the official opposition in the legislative assembly.

Stormont's devolved institutions were restored in 2024 after a two-year hiatus, with Sinn Féin becoming the first Irish nationalist party to hold the role of first minister.

They jointly lead the Northern Ireland Executive - which makes decisions on policy - alongside the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), while ministries are also held by the Alliance Party and Ulster Unionists.

In her conference speech, Hanna said voters were "promised seismic change from the big parties".

"That early promise has evaporated," she told her party.

"Making history doesn't fix public services. Demanding better isn't the same as delivering."

"And when delivery becomes difficult, what happens? Well, we know the script by now. Dissatisfaction gives way to distraction.

"Raking over the past instead of a focus on the future."

Hanna, who is MP for South Belfast and Mid Down, reiterated her party's ambitions for Irish unity.

Last month during his first visit to Northern Ireland as prime minister, Andy Burnham said a border poll was "off the table".

Northern Ireland secretary Sir Chris Bryant later said he and Burnham "stand full square" behind the 1998 Good Friday Agreement including its provisions for a referendum.

Hanna told her party's conference the "direction of travel is clear" and a "new Ireland isn't just on the table - it's on the move".

The SDLP leader said her party is "doing the work" rather than "plucking dates for a border poll out of the air".

She argued the "biggest question isn't what date" for a "new Ireland" but instead "it's why, it's how".

The MP said "who do you trust to take you there" is "another question that matters enormously".

"Because every person here has a stake in our future."

Reacting to Donald Trump's comments that a united Ireland would be fantastic, she said she suspected the Democratic Unionist Party would be "burning those Trump flags".