Trimble brands DUP campaign a 'fraud'

Ulster Unionist Party leader, David Trimble today branded the DUP's election campaign as "the biggest fraud ever foisted on the Unionist people".

Speaking after the DUP launched its 2003 manifesto on Tuesday, Mr Trimble said it was "degrading" to watch Dr Paisley's party "stoop so low in an effort to secure votes that they will openly lie to their own supporters and deliberately set out to deceive the electorate.

"What the electorate get is over a dozen pages of manifesto attacking Ulster Unionists, ridiculing our efforts to safeguard the Union and give Northern Ireland a prosperous and peaceful future," the Upper Bann MP said.

"If all that the DUP have to offer is an elaborate critique of Ulster Unionism, it is a poor reflection on the political imagination of their leadership. As for the policy ideas, I look forward to a rational debate with the Leader of the DUP on the matters they have raised."

However, speaking during yesterday's manifesto launch, DUP leader Ian Paisley said negotiations by the UUP on behalf of unionism had led to this election becoming "Ulster’s date with destiny".

"The DUP will fight these elections based on our ‘Seven Principles’. Unlike the Ulster Unionist Party, when elected we will keep our word and honour our manifesto," the North Antrim MP said.

"In this election the Official Unionists are again seeking your endorsement for a continued programme of appeasement."

Among the DUP's 'Seven Principles', Dr Paisley's party has promised 'negotiations for a new agreement', 'no negotiating with the representatives of terrorism' and 'terrorist structures and weaponry must be removed before the bar to the Stormont Executive can be opened'.

"For unionist voters who face the prospect of Sinn Fein/IRA becoming the largest nationalist party in the Assembly the choice is clear – do they want republicans faced by a UUP which has granted everything to Sinn Fein/IRA have demanded while destroying the foundations of unionism or do they want republicans faced by the DUP which will confront and resist their republican agenda while resolutely defending the Union?," the North Antrim MP added.

The DUP also outlined seven tests for the outcome of negotiations for a new agreement. These ranged from an agreement which would command 'the support of both Nationalists and Unionists', to 'a new settlement which must be able to deliver equality of opportunity to unionists as well as nationalists'.

However, the possibility of a negotiations for a new agreement where quashed by SDLP leader Mark Durkan.

"There will be no renegotiation with the DUP by the SDLP. We will not turn the clock back," he said.

"It is by working the agreement – all of the agreement with all of its institutions and safeguards – that we truly respect the mandate of all the parties. Not by wrecking it under the pretence of renegotiation or anything else."

(MB)