The contentious issue of parades must be solved before a stable political settlement can be reached for Northern Ireland, the new Ulster Unionist Party leader said.
Sir Reg Empey, who defeated Alan McFarland by 321 votes to 287 in the leadership battle, was speaking as hundreds of Orange Order members gathered in Belfast for a protest march down the Shankill area of the city yesterday.
"Last year I was involved with the Whiterock issue, when the parades commission nearly plunged this community into a summer of turmoil. I have to say I commend the North and West Belfast Parades Forum for the efforts they have been making, they have tried to reach out and they have been rebuffed," the 58-year-old former Stormont Economy Minister said.
"I want to elevate this parades issue right onto the table because there can be no proper stable political solution in Northern Ireland without this issue." He said it had been left outside the key issues for too long.
"The Parades Commission has completely gone off the Richter scale in the instability that it is causing," he told BBC Radio's 'Inside Politics' programme. "I hope to see the Secretary of State fairly soon and I will be asking him to take the opportunity in the autumn, with a new parades commission being appointed, to radically review the situation.
"I am elevating it as a major political issue, there can be no permanent settlement unless this parading issue is resolved."
Sir Reg said he was under "absolutely no illusions" about the difficulties that lay ahead.
"It's a mammoth task but we have faced great adversity before and we will meet the challenge," he added.
As he takes over the helm of the UUP, Sir Reg has inherited a party from David Trimble that will need to be rebuilt.
He said he was determined to see more young people and women join the UUP. "There is no point in bleating on about representation of women if they are not there," he said.
Sir Reg said his comments after last night's election, that he would not join Sinn Fein in government was a 'storm in a tea cup'.
"I think it is a storm in a tea cup, because to be honest with you after what has happened in the last number of years, we don't learn the lessons of what has happened," he said. "I don't think you could fill a telephone box with unionists out there that would be prepared to trust Sinn Fein under present circumstances and I am not doing it. So I will wait to hear what they say, and more importantly I will wait to see what they do. We had an understanding with Sinn Fein, not once, not twice but three times.
"Each time it blew up in our faces, each time the hand of friendship was not acceptable."
PA