A senior Ulster Unionist MLA has ruled out any early leadership contest in the troubled party

Basil McCrea, who failed in a previous bid to lead the UUP, has instead called for Tom Elliott to lead a review of the party’s structures and direction.

“We are three or four days out of the election, everyone is tired, people have come through a very long and exhausting election battle. We are just finding out where we are and where we are going to, and that will be led by Tom. This is not the time to discuss the leadership,” Mr McCrea said.

His intervention relieves the immediate pressure on Mr Elliott who has already defused some of the tension within the party by rowing back on his “Sinn Fein scum” jibe during his acceptance speech at last week’s poll count in Omagh Leisure Centre.