Mike Nesbitt to remain as Stormont health minister

Mike Nesbitt will remain as Stormont health minister, according to incoming Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Jon Burrows.

Burrows also announced his new senior leadership team on Monday.

He said Diana Armstrong will serve as the party's chief whip "alongside her responsibilities as deputy leader".

Armstrong, who represents Fermanagh and South Tyrone, is the only female Ulster Unionist assembly member.

Burrows reaffirmed the UUP's commitment to remaining in the Northern Ireland Executive.

He said the UUP is "rooted in a deep sense of duty, selflessness, and service to the people of Northern Ireland".

"We remain steadfast in our commitment to doing what is right for them," Burrows added.

"That is why today I am reaffirming our commitment to remaining in the Northern Ireland Executive, with Mike Nesbitt MLA continuing as health minister."

Burrows said Nesbitt had "shown visible and effective leadership in guiding the health service through one of its most challenging periods, delivering pay awards for health workers, finding £300m in savings and driving down waiting lists".

"As we enter the third year since the restoration of the executive, our renewed focus is on making the health service deliver where it matters.

"Long-term transformation is now under way."

Burrows said that Armstrong is "a trusted and valued colleague within the party and across the wider pro Union community".

"Together, we will provide the united and dynamic leadership our party needs, focused on strengthening the union, fixing public services and driving change in how politics is delivered here," he added.

However, when pressed by BBC News NI on whether current deputy leader Robbie Butler would remain as chair of Stormont's agriculture committee in any shake-up of committee posts, Burrows declined to answer.

He said he had not yet communicated those decisions to party assembly members yet, and that the media would find out his plans "in due time".

Butler had been considering running for the leadership but decided not to, saying that it had become apparent to his team that the direction many within the party "now wish to pursue would be under a different leadership style and new focus".

Nesbitt announced he was standing down as as leader of the UUP earlier this month.

Burrows is the only candidate in the running to replace Nesbitt as leader, with an extraordinary general meeting set for 31 January to choose a new leader and deputy leader.