U.K. cuts Northern Ireland lawmakers' pay over government deadlock

The British government isslashing the pay of members of Northern Ireland's Parliament inits latest attempt to break a political deadlock that has leftthe region with no government for almost 20 months,the U.K.'s ministerfor Northern Ireland said on Thursday.

Northern Ireland'sgovernment, where power was shared between the Irish nationalist partySinn Fein and thepro-British Democratic Unionist Party, has been frozen since Sinn Fein pulled out in January 2017,saying they were not being treated as equal partners.

Repeated attempts to break the deadlock have failed, but Karen Bradley, the U.K. minister forNorthern Ireland,told theBritish parliament on Thursday that she would make a fresh push to restarttalks in the coming weeks.

"As this impasse continues, public services are suffering.Businesses are suffering.The people of Northern Ireland are suffering," said Bradley. "Local decision-making isurgently needed to address this."

Latest step toward direct rule

Bradley said Britain would cut the pay of Northern Irelanddeputies by $12,000starting in November and by a further $10,200starting in February if no agreement is reached.

At the same time, legislation will be introduced to give "greater clarity and certainty" to the civilservice to take decisions in Northern Ireland to ensure thedelivery of public services, she said.

The move is the latest step toward reimposing direct ruleoverthe region by Westminster, including imposing a budget directly from London.The British government has been reluctant to take direct controlfor fear of angering Irish nationalists and the Irishgovernment.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in July said he planned totry to get the parties together for talks in the autumn.