UUP leader Doug Beattie: There should be no Assembly election until a new Prime Minister is elected following Liz Truss resignation

Speaking to the News Letter following Ms Truss' resignation on Thursday afternoon, Mr Beattie described the turmoil at Westminster as "a shambles, an utter shambles".

Asked for his reaction to Ms Truss' resignation, Mr Beattie said: "Liz Truss had to go. She had lost all authority and she has now gone. The instability within the government, and the instability within the Conservative Party is a real concern."

He continued: "It's a real concern for the whole of the UNited Kingdom but hre in Northern Ireland it's even more of a concern because we are now going to go through a week to get a new Prime Minister, who will appoint a new Secretary of State. And in that time, we are going to slip into an Assembly election without the new Secretary of State having had the opportunity to speak to any of the political parties. My call would be this simple; there cannot be an Assembly election called until we have a new Prime Minister, whether or not we will have a new Secretary of State, and that time is given to speak to the parties so that we can deal with the situation here. What we're seeing now is a shambles, an utter shambles."

Asked if he would be in favour of a general election, the UUP boss said: "We would be in favour of stable government, whatever form that stable government takes. If there has to be a general election to have stable government, then we will have a general election."

On the implications for the Northern Ireland Protocol - the key issue holding up the return of a fully functioning devolved government at Stormont - Mr Beattie said: "This will absolutely have an impact on the Protocol, because the EU have no one to negotiate with because we don't have a Prime Minister. All negotiations will now stop until we get some stability here. It will have an effect on the Protocol, and therefore it's difficult to see any possibility of a deal in the short term."