North in Crisis: UUP to quit Stormont as Executive plunged into turmoil

The North’s power-sharing Executive has been plunged into fresh crisis as the fallout from claims the Provisional IRA still exists intensifies.

Following another dramatic day of claim and counter-claim which saw Tánaiste Joan Burton accuse the disbanded paramilitary group of morphing into a “mafia-style organisation”, the Ulster Unionists announced their intent to walk away from Stormont saying “trust in Sinn Féin had been shattered by the revelations”.

Party leader Mike Nesbitt said the UUP will not stay in a power-sharing agreement when “the IRA are murdering and Sinn Féin are ignoring it”, and that its one minister — regional development minister Danny Kennedy — will step down next week.