Leading the opposition
Matthew O’Toole MLA, a former Downing Street communications advisor and south Belfast SDLP MLA, has been the Assembly’s first official Leader of the Opposition, on and off, since July 2022. O’Toole speaks to agendaNi about his scrutiny role, the Executive’s delivery record, and if the SDLP can ever return to the Executive.
Opposition is still a relatively new concept in the Assembly. Under the original Good Friday Agreement and subsequent amendments, nearly all MLAs found themselves in the Executive, with minor parties such as the Women’s Coalition, the Green Party, the PUP, TUV, and People Before Profit assigned to the so-called ‘naughty corner’ of the Assembly chamber.
The reform came through the Assembly and Executive Reform (Assembly Opposition) Act (Northern Ireland) 2016, which established provisions allowing for a creation of an Official Opposition, with certain rights and entitlements associated with the role.
Assembly standing orders subsequently made provision for the creation of a Leader of the Opposition and deputy Leader of the Opposition, to be nominated by the largest and second-largest parties which are entitled to membership of the Official Opposition.
After the 2016 election, the Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP declined to nominate ministers to the Executive, and instead formed the Assembly’s first Official Opposition. However, neither party opted to nominate individuals to the roles of Leader and deputy Leader, and the Executive remained inactive for three years following the 2017 election.
Following then-Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon losing her seat in the Assembly election, and with the party having lost its entitlement to an Executive portfolio, the SDLP formed the Official Opposition in July 2022 and nominated Matthew O’Toole MLA as the first Leader of the Opposition in the post-Good Friday Agreement Assembly, and the first politician to hold the title in the Stormont chamber since Nationalist Party leader Eddie McAteer in 1968.
In his office in Stormont, O’Toole outlines his vision for “constructive opposition”. “It is not simply about tearing or knocking things down, but it is about being constructive and building something. To that end, we are not simply knocking down every idea or every proposal that is coming from the Executive, but asking ‘why are you not doing anything?’”
Despite this sentiment, O’Toole describes the Executive’s delivery record as “pathetic, inert, and comatose”. He adds: “I have never met a person in real life, whether they are unionist, nationalist, neither, left, right, young, or old, who believes the Executive is delivering.
“We are not just up here to be cheerleaders or polite dissenters, we are, in the words of US Civil Rights leader John Lewis, making good trouble on numerous fronts.”
Reforming Stormont
Asked about the potential shortfalls of opposition due to the lack of a cross-community element, O’Toole asserts that “if other parties had wanted to join the opposition, we would be more than willing to work with them”.
“We are not doing [this] from a nationalist perspective. Though there are certain things where our critique will be consistent with our view of the constitution. For example, when we critique Sinn Féin, we will have a particular emphasis on more cross-border cooperation, and that will be a critique we will make to Sinn Féin ministers as well as other ministers. But I do not think it inherently inhibits an opposition.”
Nevertheless, O’Toole says he is open to reforms which would ensure a cross-community mandate for an official opposition. “I would certainly be happy to look at and consider any reform that would create a more serious, beefed-up opposition. I think complete rigidity over how it is structured would be a challenge. While I can see why that model has an instinctive attraction, it would be quite rigid.”
On reforming the Assembly broadly, O’Toole criticises the Alliance Party for having “argued for reform and have since did nothing to deliver on it”.
Asked about what his vision for reform would be, O’Toole says: “Reform of Stormont… can mean a whole range of things such as fundamentally changing how designation and power sharing works through to creating more obligations for departments to work together, reform of petitions of concern, all those things. Nothing is happening on that.
“The only thing that is happening is a committee inquiry which only exists because we forced the pace on it. That is in the AERC, the Assembly and Executive Reform Committee. Nothing other than that is happening.”
Achievements and future
O’Toole states that his greatest achievement in opposition has been “clearly establishing the role of opposition as a meaningful and significant part of our system”. He adds: “This is by far the longest period of opposition Northern Ireland has had since the provision for an official opposition came into force [in 2016]. It is established in the minds of the public what it is.”
For the SDLP, opposition has breathed new life into its Assembly team, free to scrutinise and publish alternative proposals on significant policy matters. Whether this will propel the party back into the Executive come the 2027 election, however, remains unclear.
