Stormont boycott has become 'pretty close to an existential threat to future of Northern Ireland' says Mike Nesbitt as he warns joint Irish-British authority may loom

He told an audience at a conference in America that the possibility of joint authority – shared London-Dublin sovereignty over the Province – may be drawing nearer.

He was speaking at an event on Tuesday run by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate and titled “25 Years of The Good Friday Agreement”.

In Wednesday’s News Letter, his current party leader Doug Beattie made much the same point – that the DUP boycott of Stormont is doing more harm than good, and cannot hope to achieve a renegotiation of the Windsor Framework.

"In my assessment over the last 25 years every time there's been a big decision to make the DUP have got it wrong,” said Mr Nesbitt.

"In 1998 they were against the Belfast Agreement. In 2016 they actively promoted Brexit when to my mind it was clear, obvious, that whatever Brexit meant for England, Scotland or Wales, it was going to be a disaster for NI for the reasons were still trying to work through seven years after the vote.

"Now of course they're bringing down the institutions which to my mind is getting pretty close to an existential threat to Northern Ireland's future, because we cannot go on forever without those institutions, and the options available to the government in London are pretty limited…

"What are the options? In 2006 it seems to me that the late Ian Paisley was quietly told in London it's your decision time: your place in history, and it'll either be deciding to share power with Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein or joint authority by the British and Irish governments over Northern Ireland.

"And are we hurtling, are we moving slowly in that direction, on to that same territory? I fear we might be.”

Earlier in the conference, Tory peer Lord Caine gave an indication that the government may have to conjure up an “alternative” to the present impasse.

"In the absence of the executive and the assembly, we've given civil servants some limited additional powers but it's not a long-term solution and it's not a sustainable solution,” he said.

"Being realistic, despite our efforts we might come to a stage where we have to say that this is looking unlikely in the near future and think about some alternatives.

"But it wouldn't be sensible to speculate as to quite what they might be at this stage.”

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