The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) has announced it is quitting the power-sharing administration in the North to form part of the newly established opposition.

The move by the SDLP comes a week after fellow architects of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the Ulster Unionists, also opted to take their seats on the opposition benches.

With the Alliance Party having indicated its unwillingness to re-take the executive’s contentious justice ministry, the new government in Belfast could be solely made up of the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said the party had made a “bold decision” to leave the executive.