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Ulster Unionist Party intends to leave NI Executive | |
(35 minutes later) | |
The Ulster Unionist Party intends to leave the Northern Ireland Executive, the party's leader has said. | |
Mike Nesbitt said he had made the recommendation during a meeting with senior party members. | |
He said it had been endorsed "unanimously" but would need the party's ruling body to make a final decision on Saturday. | |
Mr Nesbitt said if they supported the withdrawal then the party would form an opposition. | |
The Ulster Unionist announcement is part of a continuing political row that followed the murder of Kevin McGuigan earlier.. | |
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said members of the Provisional IRA were involved in the murder. | |
Mr McGuigan Sr, a 53-year-old ex-IRA man, was killed in what police believe was part of a "fall-out" in republican circles after the murder of former IRA commander Gerard 'Jock' Davison in May. | |
Police said an infrastructure exists at a senior level of the Provisional IRA, but that there was no evidence that Mr McGuigan's murder was sanctioned by that hierarchy. | |
On Sunday, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said there was no reason for armed republican groups, such as the IRA, to exist as the movement was committed to peace. | |
'No trust' | |
Mr Nesbitt said Sinn Féin had "no credibility and we have no trust and without trust we have nothing". | |
"The situation can be fixed but we need some clarity about the IRA and its command structure," he said. | |
He said the DUP and Sinn Féin-led government had been "incapable of delivering positive outcomes". | |
Mr Nesbitt said Danny Kennedy, the minister for regional development, would resign if the recommendation was endorsed. | |
He said he had chaired a meeting attended by the party's MLA, MEP, MPs, senior representatives of its councillors association and its party chairman and they had all given their support for withdrawal. | |
The party executive is expected to make a decision on Saturday. | |
"We will then form an opposition and offer the voter an alternative as is normal in any democracy," he added. | |
"It has not been an easy decision but we believe it is the right thing to do at this time." |