Beattie on Windsor Framework's implemention: ​I’m as British today as I was yesterday

"I am not as a leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, going to join these calls from people who said ‘the Union is over because we have a Windsor Framework trading deal’.Quite the opposite – I feel as British now as I was yesterday, and I will work to make sure that Northern Ireland works,” he said.

"And people need to understand – we knew this was coming, not just in February of this year, but in March last year… we just didn’t know what its name was going to be. I’m slightly taken aback by people who can’t identify a problem and then work to find solutions, but instead, start telling us that we’re all doomed because of a trading deal.”

Mr Beattie said we should be looking at what is happening in the business community where those involved are “getting on with it”.

He said: “It’s not ideal, it’s not the starting point they wanted, it’s not the starting point I wanted, but they are getting on with it. We need to fix the problems as opposed to just complaining about them.”

Commenting on the concerns associated with the jurisdicton of the European Court in NI, Mr Beattie said: “I think it will be soft touch. I don’t think we’ll notice that much, but there will be some things which we need to be able to challenge, and the EU scrutiny committee at Stormont is a way of doing that.”

He also said the Stormont Brake could also be useful in addressing issues of concern.

"We have to use the tools available to us, to challenge any (trade law)… that is bad for Northern Ireland”.

On the prospect of a return to powersharing at Stormont in the near future, Mr Beattie said: “I am more pessimistic today than I was last week, and I was more pessimistic last week than I was the month before.

"I have real concerns that unionism is playing a bad hand by staying out of Stormont.”