Vote will take place on 2 March, James Brokenshire says, after deadline for deal passes, triggering collapse of power-sharing executive

Elections to a new Northern Ireland assembly will take place on 2 March, James Brokenshire has announced. Following fruitless negotiations seeking to break the deadlock that led to the resignation of deputy first minister Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein last week, Northern Ireland secretary James Brokenshire signaled that elections appeared almost certain. Brokenshire’s declaration became inevitable once the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party refused hours earlier to fill its vacated top post in the nearly decade-old coalition with the major British Protestant party, the Democratic Unionists. The crisis over a renewable energy subsidy scheme instigated by First Minister Arlene Foster of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) when she was economy minister has been simmering for months.
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland James Brokenshire announces a snap election is to take place on March 2 to elect members to the Northern Ireland Assembly after the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin failed to agree on a power-sharing agreement.