Reacting to the political fallout surrounding the budget, which was presented to the Assembly on Monday, John McCallister Independent MLA has said that in the interests of good Government, the smaller Executive parties must either fully back the Budget or resign immediately.
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John McCallister has called on the smaller parties to ‘put up or shut up’ following comments on the budget.[/caption]
In a statement Mr. McCallister said: “In no other jurisdiction would you find Ministers in a coalition Government voting against a budget, or being openly hostile towards it and then refusing to resign.
“In other jurisdictions there is an acceptance that such a situation would render any Government unsustainable. In Northern Ireland it now seems par for the course.
“I fully expect each Minister and each party to fight their corner in confidential Executive meetings, but when an Executive decision is reached; all parties must either back it or resign.
“If the SDLP, UUP, or Alliance party believe for one moment this is a party political budget they should resign with immediate effect.
“This Budget will be extremely challenging and there is an element of dressing up continual failure with the success of a one-off agreement. However, it will simply not be implemented if certain Ministers fight against it.
“If you are so opposed to the budget, get out of Government – fight the budget from the Opposition benches.
“The duplicitous position of the SDLP, Alliance and UUP of being both in Government and at the same time appearing to oppose it is no longer tenable.”
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