Northern Irish politics was thrown into chaos today as Sinn Fein resigned from Stormont’s power sharing executive, as the row around the Alliance Party’s new membership rules escalated.

In a letter sent to the First Minister, and read to the Assembly by the Speaker, Sinn Fein leader and former Deputy First Minister /u/ /u/IceCreamSandwich401 blamed “the recent merger of Alliance and the Classical Liberals” which in the view of Sinn Fein had “allowed radical unionists to enter our Executive under the guise of being ‘other’ MLAs”.

The longstanding policy of the Alliance Party, the Liberal Democrats’ sister party in Northern Ireland, is to take a neutral position on questions of unionism and republicanism. Sinn Fein’s resignation from the executive appears to have been driven by the recent decision of the Liberal Democrats to allow the Alliance Party to sever official ties, and also allow membership for members of the Classical Liberals.

The presence of Classical Liberal members in the Alliance Party has caused consternation among nationalists, as the Classical Liberals’ official stance, especially in Scotland, appears to be one of strong unionism, with the Classical Liberals’ Scotland leader /u/duncs11’s approach to unionism coming in for repeated criticism from Scottish nationalists and even unionists in recent times.

We spoke to /u/IceCreamSandwich401 about his resignation, and he expressed his scepticism of APNI’s continued neutrality when they begin taking on Classical Liberal members. “It's not up to me what their [policies are], but when they hide behind the neutrality of 'other' they threaten the GFA and Stormont,” he told The Times.

When The Times pointed out that the Liberal Democrats are, like the Classical Liberals, a unionist party, he said, “The Alliance party was not [unionist] under /u/estoban06, but with /u/estoban06 resigning anybody could take over Alliance Party and make them unionist.” When pressed on which Liberal Democrats would be appropriate, he listed /u/estoban06 and former Scottish First Minister /u/Weebru_. And if any other Liberal Democrat were to lead the Alliance Party, would Sinn Fein have left the executive anyway? “If [the Alliance Party] remained under 'other', probably,” he responded.

Classical Liberal leader /u/TwistedNuke was unimpressed with Sinn Fein’s withdrawal, and told The Times that “the Classical Liberals are non-sectarian and firmly back the Good Friday Agreement.” When questioned on the prospect of an ardent unionist like /u/duncs11 standing for the neutral Alliance Party in Stormont, he said, “Alliance Party candidates are vigorously scrutinised before standing, as shown by the excellent quality of the candidates who stood in the last election.” He went on to add, “If any member wishes to stand in Northern Ireland, we will ensure that they uphold all of Alliance’s values. There are no exceptions to that rule,” leaving open the prospect that even if an outspoken unionist could gain membership of the Alliance Party, they would be stopped from running in an election. It remains to be seen if this will be enough to stabilise the Alliance Party's position in Stormont.

The First Minister /u/FPSlover1 released a statement on Sinn Fein’s withdrawal, and intimated that the next Executive is already on the cards. “I have already offered the SDLP to replace Alliance as the Nationalist Deputy First Minister, something which they have accepted, as well as Sinn Féin, who has also accepted the arrangement. We will work as fast as possible to streamline the Executive formation process, so that things may return to normalcy.” He also criticised /u/duncs11 and /u/TwistedNuke for comments made on Twitter the night before, that he felt precipitated Sinn Fein’s leaving the Executive.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated as appropriate.