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18/05/2006
UUP leader defends PUP move
Ulster Unionist Party leader Sir Reg Empey has defended the party's stance on the move to allow Progressive Unionist Party MLA David Ervine to join the UUP assembly grouping.
The UUP leader's comments on the issue followed a Commons statement yesterday from the party's one Westminster MP, Lady Sylvia Hermon.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Lady Hermon said that her party colleagues' decision had caused her “deep distress” and she revealed that she had not been consulted regarding the move. But she conceded that if the move by Sir Reg helped to achieve UVF decommissioning it could be worthwhile.
Sir Reg said that he believed the move was the right one in the long term.
A party statement placed on the UUP website in relation to the PUP read: “Tackling loyalist paramilitaries is not something that can be swept under the carpet. We have been clear and consistent in our desire to see Loyalist paramilitaries brought in from the cold and we are intent on helping secure their transition away from paramilitarism and gangsterism. The pain they caused, and continue to cause, must end. We have directly appealed to these groups to call it a day and begin decommissioning.”
The PUP's David Ervine, a party with affiliations to the UVF, joined the UUP grouping on Monday following the initial Assembly meeting at which MLA's were asked to declare their party's grouping.
In terms of the 2003 Assembly election results, the move gives Unionists a crucial edge in the Assembly in terms of potential ministerial seats and speaking rights.
But the Assembly speaker, Eileen Bell, has been asked to rule on the legality of the move by Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley.
Loyalist paramilitary group the UVF has not declared an end to their paramilitary campaign, nor decommissioned.
On Tuesday, the NI Secretary of State Peter Hain said that the thought the UVF “ought to catch up quickly”, as the IRA had delivered on decommissioning giving Sinn Fein a “much stronger position to claim a seat in a power-sharing executive”.
(SP)
The UUP leader's comments on the issue followed a Commons statement yesterday from the party's one Westminster MP, Lady Sylvia Hermon.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Lady Hermon said that her party colleagues' decision had caused her “deep distress” and she revealed that she had not been consulted regarding the move. But she conceded that if the move by Sir Reg helped to achieve UVF decommissioning it could be worthwhile.
Sir Reg said that he believed the move was the right one in the long term.
A party statement placed on the UUP website in relation to the PUP read: “Tackling loyalist paramilitaries is not something that can be swept under the carpet. We have been clear and consistent in our desire to see Loyalist paramilitaries brought in from the cold and we are intent on helping secure their transition away from paramilitarism and gangsterism. The pain they caused, and continue to cause, must end. We have directly appealed to these groups to call it a day and begin decommissioning.”
The PUP's David Ervine, a party with affiliations to the UVF, joined the UUP grouping on Monday following the initial Assembly meeting at which MLA's were asked to declare their party's grouping.
In terms of the 2003 Assembly election results, the move gives Unionists a crucial edge in the Assembly in terms of potential ministerial seats and speaking rights.
But the Assembly speaker, Eileen Bell, has been asked to rule on the legality of the move by Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley.
Loyalist paramilitary group the UVF has not declared an end to their paramilitary campaign, nor decommissioned.
On Tuesday, the NI Secretary of State Peter Hain said that the thought the UVF “ought to catch up quickly”, as the IRA had delivered on decommissioning giving Sinn Fein a “much stronger position to claim a seat in a power-sharing executive”.
(SP)
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