Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness called on First Minister Arlene Foster to “stand aside” while issues surrounding the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme are investigated. Mr McGuinness said he was concerned the “credibility of the political institutions is being undermined”. Reacting to this, Mrs Foster said “The First Minister does not take her instructions from Sinn Féin, but from the electorate.” Mrs Foster will face a vote of ‘no confidence’ at the Assembly on Monday, tabled by opposition parties.

The DUP suspended Strangford MLA Jonathan Bell from the party. In an interview with the BBC’s Stephen Nolan, he accused DUP advisers of delaying his plans to close down the RHI scheme. Mr Bell was Mrs Foster’s successor as Minister for the now defunct Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) which had set up the RHI. The party denied this. It has been revealed that Mr Bell is to sue Mrs Foster over comments she made in a subsequent televised interview.

PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton told Westminster’s Northern Ireland Affairs Committee that post-Brexit checkpoints at the Irish border would be “obvious” targets for dissident republicans. Still, he said he did not consider police checkpoints likely; the PSNI’s Brexit priority is maintaining information sharing arrangements with the Irish Republic and replacing the European Arrest Warrant.

UK Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said civil servants, councillors and other holders of public office should swear an oath to British values. In a Sunday Times article, he argued people could not play a “positive role” in public life unless they accepted these basic values or “building blocks of our society”. These include democracy, equality and freedom of speech. He was responding to a report by Dame Louise Casey which warned of increasing ethnic segregation; she has accused public bodies of ignoring or condoning harmful religious practices for fear of being perceived as racist.

The Polish capital Warsaw has seen three days of protest against government plans to restrict journalists’ access to parliament. Opposition MPs have staged a sit-in since Friday. European Council President Donald Tusk, who is a former Polish prime minister, has urged the government to respect the constitution. He criticised its plans; without media access, he said, “democracy becomes dictatorship”.