Unstable and undemocratic devolution in Northern Ireland could be used as an excuse to erode the United Kingdom, an Ulster Unionist claimed today.
South Antrim Assembly candidate David Burnside warned the union was under threat from inside and outside Northern Ireland, as the Scottish Nationalist Party launches a bid to become the largest party at Holyrood.
"An Assembly at Stormont which brings government closer to the people and halts the blackmailing tactics of Peter Hain and the Northern Ireland Office is a worthy aim for the Ulster Unionist Party," he said.
"A legislative Stormont which is inherently unstable and undemocratic, however, might be used by English MPs as an excuse to weaken the union and could be a dangerous Trojan horse for unionism.
"Too many unionist politicians and commentators foolishly say the union is secure because the principle of consent was enshrined in the Belfast Agreement and continues through the St Andrews Agreement.
Mr Burnside warned if the SNP became the largest party in Scotland it could trigger a referendum calling for an end to the union, with Scotland withdrawing.
"If that sequence of events unfolds, many English MPs will move further away from supporting the union," he warned.
"Even if Scotland does not secede, it is almost inevitable that Westminster will stop Scottish MPs voting on domestic English matters because they have a legislative Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
"The Welsh Assembly is administrative and not legislative and therefore the pressure to take away Welsh MPs' rights will not be so strong.
"We in Ulster are about to fight an election where a legislative Assembly at Stormont which inherently imposes a danger that the union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland will be weakened, with Westminster asking why Northern Ireland MPs should have full voting rights when there is a devolved legislative Assembly at Stormont."
Mr Burnside also criticised the Democratic Unionists over their handling of the negotiations last autumn at St Andrews, claiming they had failed to negotiate a better deal.
The DUP, he alleged, had left the political institutions at Stormont fundamentally undemocratic, unstable and unaccountable and he insisted a power-sharing government chosen under the d'Hondt system was not stable in the long term.
PA