Alliance Party manifesto: Key policies analysed

The Alliance Party has made reform of Northern Ireland’s devolved government institutions one of its central missions in recent years.

And this is once again featured heavily in its Westminster election manifesto, with a host of proposals it believes would make the structures more stable.

The 1998 Good Friday Agreement largely ended decades of violent conflict in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles, and ushered in a new system of mandatory power-sharing between unionists and nationalists.

But the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly have been far from perfect, with the institutions collapsing multiple times over the years.

Alliance, which does not take a position on the constitutional question, says it would end “ransom politics” by preventing the larger unionist and nationalist parties from vetoing the establishment of the institutions.

Its proposals include replacing the assembly’s system of cross-community voting on contentious issues with a weighted majority system.

Alliance also wants to change the names of the first minister and deputy first minister to “joint first ministers” to reflect the co-equal nature of their office.

But can Alliance deliver these changes?

Stormont’s two largest parties, Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), have so far shown little interest in pressing for reform of the institutions at this stage.

And the UK government has also been reluctant to intervene without consensus from the main Stormont parties on a way forward.

Alliance, which is the third-largest party in the assembly, argues that reform can be advanced from Westminster.

But a handful of Northern Ireland MPs bringing about change in a 650-seat House of Commons could be an uphill struggle.