DUP's expulsion threat to members talking to Sinn Fein

The DUP leader has warned his party members that anyone who is seen to make contact with Sinn Féin will face expulsion.

Dr Ian Paisley made his shock announcement at his party's annual conference in Belfast at the weekend. He also told party delegates that the DUP would continue to ignore Sinn Féin until the "representatives of terrorism" got rid of its secret army.

However, the UUP's Sir Reg Empey accused the DUP of hypocrisy, saying: "Four times in almost as many weeks, the DUP stalwarts have engaged with Sinn Féin /IRA in television studios to debate politics and policing.

“Slowly but surely they are pulling back from their stated position of having nothing to do with Sinn Féin/IRA. They work alongside republicans at Stormont and it is now abundantly clear to all of us that the DUP are preparing the ground for a major policy reversal.

"The DUP will sit with republicans. It will share power with its sworn enemies. And all the time, it will tell its supporters that it will have no truck with Republicans.”

Meanwhile, Dr Paisley hit out at the Good Friday Agreement, Prime Minister Minister Tony Blair and UUP leader David Trimble during his party's annual conference.

The North Antrim MP criticised Mr Trimble for continuing to back the Agreement and said that he and the UUP had "stuck to the job of destroying the union and making Ulster the mere plaything of Dublin and the republican elements of the British Labour Party".

But Mr Trimble hit back and criticised what he described as the DUP's strategy of "schoolyard name calling". He said: "We in the Ulster Unionist Party are focused on policies, not personalities. We simply draw attention to the time and effort devoted to pillorying other unionists at the DUP bash at the Europa Hotel last Saturday and the lack of focus on the activities and strategy of republicanism.

"Whose ends does this serve? What message do the personal insults send to pro-Union voters? Can a party that goes so low be taken seriously by other parties and by our Government? Is this a unionism that reaches out beyond Ulster's shores? What message do the crude sectarian references send to non-Protestants who want to support the Union?"

Mr Trimble concluded by claiming that the DUP's strategy would bring only one thing – pro-union apathy at the next elections and Sinn Fein as the largest party in Northern Ireland.

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