With a hung parliament still a possibility, how might Jeremy Corbyn form a government? That’s the key question John Coulter is asking in the run-up to Election Day.  

Beyond focusing voters’ minds on the issue of Boris Johnson’s trustworthiness, why else might Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn have chosen to emphasise Treasury documents in relation to the Brexit impact on Northern Ireland? 

It is not to drive a wedge between the Conservatives (especially the right-wing, pro-Brexit ERG) and the DUP as that rift already exists. 

It is to drive a wedge between pro-Union voters in Northern Ireland and the DUP, which is defending 10 of the 18 seats. 

A worst-case scenario for the DUP is that it could return with only seven MPs, leaving the other 11 seats in the hands of non-unionists, especially Sinn Féin which – unlike the Scottish and Welsh nationalists – has operated an abstentionist policy towards Westminster since its formation in 1905. 

Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign event around the Treasury report is already having an impact in Northern Ireland, as 1,000 loyalists held a public meeting recently against Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal. 

Corbyn is suggesting that the Tories have already agreed to cut Northern Ireland adrift in return for the remainder of the UK to be able to ‘get Brexit done’ in January – a key selling point for the Conservatives in this general election campaign.

While the Labour Party has little realistic chance of securing a majority of its own, its best case scenario is a hung parliament in which Jeremy Corbyn can persuade enough of the smaller parties to support its government over one led by Boris Johnson.

The DUP has not ruled out a deal with Labour – provided the party ditches Jeremy Corbyn as its leader. So if the numbers were tight enough, and Labour needed the votes of only several of Northern Ireland’s MPs to complete a political rainbow coalition with Scottish and Welsh nationalists, the Greens, even the Liberal Democrats, it could gain power with a different leader.

But that would be a tall order. If Labour preferred not to let the DUP decide on who should be its leader, could it turn to Sinn Féin instead?

In spite of Sinn Féin emphasising its abstentionist policy towards the House of Commons – a stance it has held since the party’s formation in 1905 – Irish politics is the art of ‘never saying never’. 

After all, Sinn Féin managed to change policy by dropping its past historical abstentionist position towards both the Dáil in Dublin and the Assembly at Stormont. 

This time around, Sinn Féin may be forced to rethink its abstentionist strategy if the SDLP wins a couple of MPs, and begins to make its votes count in the Commons chamber. If the SDLP is seen to be delivering at Westminster, it could leave Sinn Féin on the back foot in a future Assembly election.

Stranger things have happened, and this has been no ordinary election so far.