NI Assembly election: UUP councillor quits over Nesbitt vote pledge

Carol Black said the party's "whole ethos" had been "destroyed" by Mike Nesbitt's voting intention

An Ulster Unionist councillor has resigned from party after leader Mike Nesbitt said he would not give unionists his second-preference vote.

He said he would give his second preference vote in the upcoming election to the SDLP.

Voters go to the polls on 2 March after the power-sharing executive collapsed over a botched energy scheme.

Carol Black, of Armagh Banbridge and Craigavon Council, said "the whole ethos of the party has been destroyed."

• Special report: NI Election 2017

She is best known for beating the DUP in a by-election in Dromore in County Down 2008, after the party went into government with Sinn Féin.

Making the announcement on Tuesday, she said: "Why shouldn't I give my vote to a unionist, a Protestant or a Presbyterian?"

The UUP leader said he would give his second preference vote in the upcoming election to the SDLP

Earlier, at the launch of the party's manifesto, Mr Nesbitt denied he had made a mistake in sharing his intentions with the BBC's Sunday Politics programme.

Jim Speers, who is the Ulster Unionist group leader on Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council, said he was "disappointed, but not surprised" at the news of Ms Black's resignation.

He said: "This has been coming for some time and the Ulster Unionist Party will move on without her.

"We have a vision of unionism that embraces everyone, and clearly Carol does not subscribe to this, given her comments.

"We are a political party open to all faiths and none."