UUP councillor defects over PUP 'deal'

Ulster Unionist Party councillor, Peter Bowles, is to defect to the Conservative Party in protest over the UUP's decision to continue with their deal with the PUP.

Mr Bowles condemned the decision by party leaders to join forces with David Ervine`s Progressive Unionist Party, which has links to loyalist paramilitary group the UVF.

Mr Bowles, a councillor in Down District, said he agreed that "we have to bring loyalists in from the cold, but there are ways and means of doing things, and this isn't the way".

He added: "I'm in politics to improve standards of living for everybody in my area, not for a link-up with the PUP for the sole purpose of gaining an extra seat on the executive."

Senior UUP assembly member Dermot Nesbitt responded by saying that it was a "risk worth taking if we succeed."

Mr Nesbitt said that it was not just paramilitaries whom they were "trying to bring in from the cold" but also "the communities from which they come who feel alienated in Northern Ireland."

He added that the assembly link, which would give the UUP an extra ministerial seat at Sinn Fein's expense if a power-sharing executive is formed, was "not unconditional."

"We still hold to the line that you cannot be participating in government unless you disarm and are totally free of any illegality."

The moves come just days after UUP MP, Lady Sylvia Hermon called for the party to sever ties with the PUP, saying that the attempted murder of leading loyalist Mark Haddock on May 30 and the UVF's failure to decommission, should be enough to render the deal invalid.

On Friday, UUP leader, Sir Reg Empey said that he acknowledged and respected Lady Hermon's views, however he added that the party was not prepared to walk away from the deal and vowed to continue with his strategy of persuading loyalist paramilitaries to abandon violence.

Last month, the UUP sparked outrage among politicians by inviting Progressive Unionist Party leader, David Ervine to join their assembly group when the local executive reconvened.

(EF/SP)