UUP poised to reject deal

Despite international pleas for it to support the deal and overwhelming public support for it, the hard-line party insisted on Monday night that it did not believe that the power-sharing administration was mature enough to take over the powers from Westminster.

The UUP stood accused of playing politics with the peace process.

The planned "no vote" will mean that it will now fall to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to push through the measures by voting alongside Sinn Fein.

On Monday two separate government opinion polls were unveiled to show major public support for the devolution of the policing powers.

Secretary of State Shaun Woodward said that a UUP rejection would fail to block the measures, but would send a divisive signal that would provide succour to violent dissident groups opposed to the peace process.

The Tories endorsed the political deal brokered at Hillsborough castle between the DUP and Sinn Fein last month.

But the Conservative electoral pact with the UUP means they now face the prospect of fighting the general election in Northern Ireland with a political partner opposed to the agreement.

The Hillsborough deal, signed after nearly two weeks of round the clock talks at the Co Down venue, promised delivery of the republican demand for the devolution of policing and justice powers, plus the unionist call for the creation of new systems to oversee loyal order parades.

The agreement was aimed at providing greater stability to the power-sharing administration, avoiding a threatened collapse in the institutions after a lengthy political stand-off on devolution.

While Sinn Fein and the DUP have the electoral strength to push the vote through, a rejection from the UUP will deprive them of the unanimous support they have sought.

Sinn Fein Junior Minister Gerry Kelly said: "I have to say I have been bemused at the position of the UUP, which seem to be playing crude politics with everybody's future.

"The overwhelming majority of people want this to happen."

He added: "I think it's going to happen and we are delighted to be at this point."

n Unionist figurehead Ian Paisley, who is stepping down as an MP, has passed the political torch to his son, with their party pledging that Ian Junior would also fight "Dublin rule" if elected to Westminster.

A DUP meeting on Monday night unanimously selected Ian Paisley Jnr to fight for the North Antrim seat that his father has held for 40 years.