Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster has told Northern Secretary Brandon Lewis to “back off” in a row over the introduction of permissive abortion legislation. The law decriminalises abortion completely,

The DUP leader was reacting to Mr Lewis’s intervention in the House of Commons on Tuesday, where he said he was taking on the power to compel health minister Robin Swann to commission an extensive abortion regime in the North despite the Executive not agreeing on the issue.

At a press conference in Dungannon, Co Tyrone with Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill, Ms Foster said the DUP’s position was “that both lives matter, and whilst we’ve spent this past year trying to save lives through Covid-19, we should also try and save lives in the womb”.

“This is a hugely complex, controversial, legally challenging issue for the Executive but let us be very clear, it is for the Executive, it is not for Brandon Lewis,” added Ms Foster.

She said the new abortion law came in at Westminster in 2019 because devolution was suspended. “There is devolution now and he should back off,” she said of Mr Lewis.