Former first minister and DUP leader Ian Paisley has died

Former Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley, has died aged 88.

Baroness Eileen Paisley said her husband died on Friday morning and the family was heartbroken.

Mr Paisley moved from a political "never man" to Northern Ireland's first minister.

He ended up leading a power-sharing executive at Stormont - although he had supported the strike to bring one down 30 years earlier.

In her statement, Baroness Paisley said: "Although ours is the grand hope of reunion, naturally as a family, we are heartbroken," she said.

"We loved him and he adored us and our earthly lives are forever changed."

Baroness Paisley said that his funeral would be private.

Prime Minister David Cameron said Mr Paisley was "one of the most forceful and instantly recognisable characters in British politics for nearly half a century".

He said he was a controversial politician but his contribution in his later years to stability in Northern Ireland was "huge".

"In particular, his decision to take his party into government with Sinn Féin in 2007 required great courage and leadership, for which everyone in these islands should be grateful," Mr Cameron said.

"Ian Paisley will be remembered by many as the 'Big Man' of Northern Ireland politics. He will be greatly missed."

Ed Miliband, Leader of the Opposition, said Mr Paisley was "a towering figure in Northern Ireland politics for decades".

"His decision to take the DUP into a power-sharing partnership with Sinn Féin was the ultimate act of political courage and reconciliation,"he said.

First Minister and DUP leader Peter Robinson said that during the height of the Troubles, the "sure and certain ring" of Ian Paisley's voice had a "special resonance" with the people of Northern Ireland.

"I don't think that there's anyone who has had more influence in Northern Ireland over the years," Mr Robinson said.

"Even those who thought the least of his politics thought the most of him as a person."

He said those who knew Ian Paisley knew his priority was his faith - above all else in life.

"In terms of Ian Paisley's political contribution, I think there are many people who look at his early days in the context of the more stable and peaceful society that we have today.

"The Ian Paisley of those days was an Ian Paisley that was keeping together a unionist community that felt it was under fire, that it had no friends to help it constitutionally, that its representatives were being picked off, there was genocide along the border," he said.

However, former Alliance Party leader John Cushnahan said that while he sympathised with the family, he was astonished at the "rewriting" of Ian Paisley's political contribution.

"While I welcome the fact that he ultimately embraced power sharing, it was too little too late and should not be used to excuse the pain and suffering that he inflicted on the people of Northern Ireland for the majority of his political life," he said.

Mr Cushnahan said that his life was "punctuated with nakedly sectarian acts and deeds".

He said the 1974 power sharing executive in Northern Ireland had been brought down by "a combination of increasing IRA violence and the fascist UWC strike led by Ian Paisley and loyalist paramilitaries".

"Tragically thousands more people were to lose their lives or suffer serious injury before Sinn Féin and the DUP embraced what already been on offer in 1974. The belated conversion of both should not result in an attempt to naively rewrite history."

Martin McGuinness, Sinn Féin, who was Ian Paisley's deputy first minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly, said he had learned of the death with deep regret and sadness.

"Over a number of decades we were political opponents and held very different views on many, many issues but the one thing we were absolutely united on was the principle that our people were better able to govern themselves than any British government," he said.

"I want to pay tribute to and comment on the work he did in the latter days of his political life in building agreement and leading unionism into a new accommodation with republicans and nationalists."

Analysis: Nick Robinson, BBC political editor

Loved and loathed, admired and feared, the life of the man known simply as "Big Ian" is the story of Northern Ireland's transition from violence to peace.

Some will remember him for a single word - "Never!" - rarely spoken, usually bellowed.

He was, for years, the symbol of unionist defiance and, occasionally, menace.

Others will reflect, instead, on what was to become a routine but nonetheless extraordinary sight.

The sight of him sharing a smile and a laugh with the man who had been his bitter enemy - Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness.

Read more: Ian Paisley: From Dr No to Dr Yes

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said Mr Paisley was "a man of deep convictions".

"The convictions never changed. But his appreciation of the possibilities of peace, gradually and with much soul searching, did. He began as the militant. He ended as the peacemaker," he said.

President of Ireland Michael D Higgins said Mr Paisley was "a man of deep convictions".

"His early career was characterised by an uncompromising position of a constitutional kind. However, his embracing of the change necessary to achieve a discourse that might lead to peace was of immense significance, as was his commitment to building relationships in support of that peace," he said.

Former Irish prime minster Bertie Ahern described Ian Paisley as "a big man with a big heart".

Ian Paisley pictured outside Stormont in 1969