Her comments come as Arlene Foster and Gavin Robinson advocated for money to be taken from welfare budgets and spent on defence instead.

Ms Mulholland said: “While Alliance supports the need for sustainable defence spending, taking it from the pockets of those on low incomes would be a bad idea in any circumstances, and especially during an energy crisis that will leave more and more local families having to choose between heating and eating.

“Northern Ireland already has the highest rate of fuel poverty in the UK and those who receive welfare support have among the lowest levels of resilience to the type of price spikes we’ve seen for home heating oil during the last few weeks. For a party that claims to champion the needs of ordinary men and women, the DUP is catastrophically out of touch with how many of those families are struggling to get by.

“Let’s also remember that the Exchequer has so little to spend on priorities like energy support, welfare and defence spending because of the chaotic hard Brexit pushed by the DUP. The UK economy is hundreds of billions of pound worse off today than if we remained in the EU, so perhaps it is time for the DUP to reflect on the role they’ve played in making our society and armed forces poorer, rather than punching down on those who are already facing such an uphill battle to make ends meet.”