PAUL Givan has announced he will resign as the North’s First Minister.
It means that the Stormont Executive can no longer function as the Executive Office is a joint ministerial post currently shared between the DUP and Sinn.
Assembly elections were due to be held in May this year but could now be brought foward.
In his resignation speech, Mr Givan says it would not have been possible for him to carry out his role without the support of family and party colleagues.
“It’s often those that we’re close to in our families who feel the pressure, even more so than those of us in frontline politics,” he added.
He said that being first minister has been the “privilege of my life’.
The Lagan Valley MLA said that when he entered the assembly in 2010 he never expected to be first minister.
He thanked Edwin Poots for nominating him for the job and Sir Jeffrey Donaldson for asking him to continue in the role.
Michelle O’Neill said she had spoken to other party leaders to make progress on issues “at pace” while the DUP engaged in “stunt politics”.
The deputy first minister, who will now lose her role as Mr Givan has resigned from the joint office, said politics at Stormont “can’t limp on forever”.
Mrs O’Neill added that there would be “catastrophic impacts” as a result of the DUP’s actions, such as a delay to the apology for victims of historical institutional abuse and knock-on effects for the draft budget and dealing with cost of living matters.
SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood said the DUP’s actions represent a “total betrayal of the people”.
“We’re going through massive hikes in energy costs, our waiting lists are an embarrassment around the world, and the DUP are pulling their first minister out of government,” the Foyle MP told the media in Derry.
The Foyle MP accused the DUP of pulling a “stunt” which he says is more to do with the upcoming assembly election and not the Northern Ireland Protocol.
“I frankly think people have had enough of 15 years of in and out of government, of parties only focused on themselves and not focused on delivering for the people,” he added.
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