IRISH communists expressed scepticism yesterday after the UUP and SDLP vowed to offer an alternative to the Stormont power-sharing government.

Nationalist SDLP leader Colum Eastwood addressed the unionist UUP conference in Belfast on Saturday, accusing the DUP-Sinn Fein executive of “all guff and no government.”

The Foyle MLA claimed the “cosy establishment” running the executive had failed the people and eroded trust in the effectiveness of the devolved institutions.