UUP leader Doug Beattie says talk of shared power ‘unacceptable’

Leader of the UGP Doug Beatty said any attempt to secure joint power would be a “violation of the Good Friday Agreement” and “unacceptable”.

is comments come as Alliance party leader Naomi Long told the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster program on Tuesday that she is calling on Rishi Sunak to reform legislation related to the Northern Ireland Assembly to prevent further government collapses.

“The Ulster Unionist Party wants to see the restoration of devolved government at Stormont,” Mr Beattie said.

“One of the main reasons this side supported the Belfast Agreement in 1998 was to provide a replacement for the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement which allowed Dublin to play an advisory role in Northern Ireland affairs.

“The Constitutional Matters section of the Belfast Agreement recognized that “it would be wrong to make any change in the status of Northern Ireland except with the consent of a majority of its people.

“Obviously any attempt to impose some form of Joint Power between London and Dublin Northern Ireland would run counter to that and would be another very serious breach of the Belfast Agreement.”

He went on to say that the focus needs to be on “efforts to restore Stormont so that locally elected politicians have local knowledge and understanding of the place and are therefore best placed to make decisions that affect the lives of people here.” , can continue this work.”

“This is what Northern Ireland needs now, not talk of shared power”