Northern Ireland Secretary Shailesh Vara has said that he will have to call an Assembly election at the end of October if parties cannot agree a return of devolved institutions at Stormont.
In a speech to the British-Irish Association in Oxford, Mr Vara said that he believed it was the duty of political parties in Northern Ireland to form a devolved government to spend money to help people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.
The DUP withdrew from the Executive earlier this year in protest over the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol.
