Lean on DUP to restore power sharing, Sinn Féin tells new NI secretary

Sinn Féin's vice-president, Michelle O'Neill, pictured with its finance minister, Conor Murphy, on Thursday, says the UK must stop ‘pandering’ to the DUP. Photograph: Peter Morrison/PA

Sinn Féin has urged the new Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, to lean on the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) to restore the power-sharing executive at Stormont.

Michelle O’Neill, the party’s first minister-designate, told Heaton-Harris on Thursday that the British government should stop “pandering” to the DUP, which has paralysed power-sharing in protest against the Northern Ireland protocol.