In Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Assembly had been suspended and the province has been without devolved government from 9 January 2017, for a March 2017 general Assembly election, until 11 January 2020. The leading party in the Assembly, the Democratic Unionist Party withdrew support for the Assembly, through the rsesignation of First Minister Paul Givan, in February 2022, in protest over the Northern Ireland Protocol of the Brexit agreement, the implementation of which unionists have objected to.
