Any attempt by Stormont parties to capitalise on the legacy process will be to the detriment of Northern Ireland and destabilising for loyalist communities, Progressive Unionist Party leader Billy Hutchinson has said.

At the PUP annual conference in Co Antrim on Saturday Mr Hutchinson said loyalists must be included in any legacy process on the conflict in the North.

The PUP, which has links to loyalist paramilitaries, has four elected councillors at present but is not represented at Stormont.

Mr Hutchinson told the conference without loyalist leadership “we would have no peace” and added that there has been a failure “to appreciate the depth of loyalist achievement”.

The intended structure to deal with conflict legacy issues is an Historical Investigations Unit (HIU), an Independent Commission for Information Retrieval (ICIR), an Implementation and Reconciliation Group (IRG) and an oral history archive.

“Any formal process designed to include a community which excludes them from involvement in that design will not work,” he said.

“This simple and obvious point has been overlooked by the two governments and the main political parties.

“There is largely suspicion and hostility about talk on the legacy issues amongst loyalist communities now.”

He said it must be a process where conditionality is shaped by community participation and social conversation.

“Without this a legacy process will find no public support except in situations where one community believes it can use such a process against others.”

Mr Hutchinson acknowledged that loyalism has to “address the influence of paramilitary structures and that this is the most pressing issue for Northern Ireland as a whole now”.

He argued that without full inclusion it is unlikely any legacy process can succeed.

In a speech to party members Mr Hutchinson claimed Stormont ministers like to “operate in silos” and was critical of the DUP education minister Peter Weir recently issuing guidance to schools that told principals they could now prepare children for unofficial entrance exams that grammar schools have been operating since the 11-plus was abolished in 2008.

Previously, schools had been cautioned against distorting the curriculum by facilitating the unregulated transfer tests.

Mr Hutchinson claimed the education system has failed children and is “very clearly broken”.

He spoke of educational under achievement in disadvantage areas being an outrage and of the importance of children from all backgrounds being educated together.

He also raised concerns about Northern Ireland’s manufacturing base being under threat and job losses in this area.

“Instead of lusting after the white elephant of lower corporation tax, the government would be best served helping those businesses already here, instead of a dubious and costly gamble on those who may never come,” he said.

On Britain’s decision to leave the EU, he spoke of wanting Northern Ireland to get the best deal possible from Brexit negotiations and of the importance of protected the Border area “from criminality and illegal immigrants entering the UK”.