Northern Ireland First Minister Paul Givan gives emotional resignation speech

Northern Ireland’s DUP first minister Paul Givan has resigned, bringing the power-sharing executive which governs the province under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement to the brink of collapse.

In an emotional statement at a Belfast hotel, Mr Givan said that the Northern Ireland Protocol agreed as part of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal had disturbed the “delicate balance” between communities established in the 1998 GFA and the 2006 St Andrews deal on devolution.

Mr Givan’s departure will automatically force Michelle O’Neill, his Sinn Fein deputy, out of office.

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