The Ulster Unionist deputy leader Mr John Taylor has tonight scrapped plans to defend his seat at the next British general election.
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Mr John Taylor - to
stand down as MP |
The 63-year-old Strangford MP, who has represented the constituency since 1983, is retiring because of his workload.
Mr Taylor's decision came as Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid dampened down speculation of an imminent deal.
The MP, who also represents the constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly had been selected to contest the Strangford seat at the next Westminster election.
However, his seat was being targeted by the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists who were hopeful of winning it with their candidate, Ms Iris Robinson.
Mr Taylor has been a controversial figure in the Ulster Unionist Party, known for his maverick statements on the direction of the peace process.
He was beaten by Mr David Trimble for the leadership of the UUP in 1995 by 456 to 333 votes.
The Strangford MP is a former Minister of State for Home Affairs in the old Stormont Executive and a former MEP. He also survived an Official IRA assassination bid in 1972 in Armagh city and underwent emergency surgery.
Meanwhile, Dr Reid, who was meeting the Province's political parties at Stormont for his first round of talks since taking up his job, cautioned against over-optimism about the current talks aimed at resolving the issues of IRA decommissioning, British demilitarisation and policing.
"It is a slow and a complex and a painstaking task. So I think we are all as well to avoid euphoria and despair to temper any optimism with a degree of realism and caution as well," he said emerging from Castle Buildings.
"There is a view that the easy thing about a jigsaw is that all the pieces are there. The only difficulty is putting them together to complete the jigsaw.
"But I think when we are involved in a process like this that there are naturally a wide range of matters, whether it is normalisation, whether it is the process of normalisation on the police side, the implementation of Patten and these are difficult because there are longstanding and sincerely-held views on these matters.
"So what I wanted to try to do today is to meet all of the parties including incidentally those who are opposed to the Belfast Agreement, to hear their point of view, to equip myself better to try to take us through the next period."
PA