She was speaking following Liz Truss’ resignation as Conservative leader after six weeks. Ms Truss will remain as Prime Minister until a replacement is elected by Tory MPs within the next week.

“Liz Truss’ term as Prime Minister was a disaster from start to finish and will go down in history for all the wrong reasons,” said Mrs Long.

“It had degenerated into a disaster a day, sometimes an hour, for Liz Truss, driven by her decision to pursue a hard right agenda, including trickle down economics, which sent the economy into meltdown and compounded the pain of families and businesses already under strain as a result of the cost of living crisis.

“This relentless chaos has yet again underlined the urgency of restoration of a functioning and reformed Stormont Executive. In previous crises we have been able to fall back on Westminster intervention. However, we do not have that luxury given the unprecedented scale of the crisis unfolding in Westminster.

“While an Assembly and Executive cannot fix international or national crises, they can provide leadership for local people during this unprecedented time and help guide our public services and finances through this difficult period.

“Whatever the outcome in Westminster of this latest development, our priority and our duty to people here is to get back to work ahead of next week's deadline and deliver the best leadership we can for their sake.”