SDLP: Executive’s early promise has ‘evaporated’ says Hanna

The current Stormont Executive’s “early promise has evaporated”, the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) is to tell their annual conference.

Claire Hanna will say 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”, the MP is expected to say in her speech.

The conference in Belfast on Saturday will be 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 will say voters were “promised seismic change from the big parties”.

“That early promise has evaporated,” she is to tell 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.”