Belfast (Reuters) – Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party on Friday said it would block the election of a speaker for the Northern Ireland Assembly, in a move that would shut down the British-run province’s newly elected legislature. In a statement to the News Letter, party leader Jeffrey Donaldson said he will not back a speaker or nominate ministers until the UK alters the Northern Ireland Protocol. “Today the DUP will not support the election of a speaker in the Assembly,” he said in the statement. (Reporting by Graham Fahy; editing by John Stonestreet)