The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, has called for a full inquiry into the Provisional IRA spy ring allegedly operating at the heart of the Northern Ireland Office in Stormont.
Speaking after a meeting of his party's 100-strong executive yesterday evening, he said UUP members at the meeting had expressed substantial anger at the discovery of the alleged spy ring and the way the NIO had handled it.
They were alarmed that when the messenger at the centre of the allegations was discovered allegedly photocopying documents he was merely moved to another department. Mr Trimble warned the Irish Government not to try and seek a greater role in the North's affairs if devolution was suspended next week.
Rumours circulating in Dublin that there could be some form of joint authority were "utterly wrong" and any such action would undermine the fundamental principles of the Belfast Agreement, he said. "The whole Agreement is based on the notion of consent. If any attempt is made by elements of the Irish Government to undermine that principle then they will do enormous damage, not just to the agreement and the political process but enormous damage to any prospect of good relations developing."Mr Trimble called for the British government to expel Sinn Féin from government rather than suspend the entire power-sharing Executive. Suspension was "fundamentally undesirable because it punished the innocent along with the guilty".
The expulsion of Sinn Féin would run only until next May's Assembly elections when the issue would have to be looked at again, he said. Mr Trimble also said the appearance of DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, in a television studio on Thursday night with Sinn Féin minister, Mr Martin McGuinness, was the start of a change of DUP policy.
SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkan said his party would next week publish proposals for rebuilding trust between the North's political parties. "I am determined to ensure the progress worked on so painstakingly in the political institutions will not be undone despite the suspension that appears inevitable," he said.