Democratic Unionist MEP accused of opportunist attack
Democratic Unionist MEP Jim Allister was accused of shameless opportunism today after he attacked rival Ulster Unionists for joining forces at Stormont with a loyalist politician.
Ulster Unionist Jim Nicholson was incensed after Mr Allister attacked his party on the back of a European Parliament debate on racism over its decision to admit David Ervine into its Assembly Group.
Mr Allister noted that Mr Ervine‘s party, the Progressive Unionists were linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force – a paramilitary group believed to behind racist and sectarian violence in the North.
“In terms of the standards and ethics expected of democratic parties, I very much regret that in Northern Ireland the Ulster Unionist Party has seen fit to invite into its Stormont Assembly Party the political representative of the UVF, an illegal organisation which has been mired in racist, sectarian and other violence,” he said.
“Such a shameful association not only diminishes those who so taint themselves, but undermines what should be a united stand by all democratic parties against criminality, whether of the racist or other variety.”
Mr Nicholson, however, accused his DUP rival and others in the Rev Ian Paisley’s party of memory loss over the PUP.
He retorted: “For the sake of consistency, I would challenge Mr Allister to condemn the DUP councillors who voted for a PUP Mayor in Belfast City Council; his colleagues who sit alongside loyalist paramilitaries on the North and West Belfast Parades Forum; DUP Policing Board members who sit alongside the PUP chairman Dawn Purvis on the board; senior party colleagues who shared a platform with Portadown loyalist Billy Wright.
“Mr Allister, like all his DUP colleagues, is guilty of displaying nothing but breathtaking hypocrisy but of course this is nothing new for them.
“The UUP wont be sniping from the sidelines like others do but is committed to bringing about the change necessary within loyalist communities that will finally allow them to break free from the cycle of criminality and paramilitarism which has scarred these communities for too long.”
The UUP’s decision to join forces with Mr Ervine has attracted criticism from a number of other parties, as well as some internal dissent about the party’s sole MP Lady Sylvia Hermon expressing unease.
Earlier this week, Down district councillor Peter Bowles, who was a UUP party officer, defected to the Northern Ireland Conservatives and was joined by former Ards councillor Philip Smith.
The UUP leadership, however, has shrugged off the defections and Lady Sylvia’s criticism, insisting the vast majority of their rank-and-file support the decision to link up with Mr Ervine.
Initially the Ulster Unionists and Progressive Unionists said the decision to admit the PUP leader into the Assembly Group was designed to ensure unionists had a majority of ministers in any future Stormont Executive.
With the allocation of ministries based on party strength in the Assembly, Mr Ervine would give the UUP a ministry which Sinn Féin would otherwise have taken.
UUP leader Sir Reg Empey also insisted the decision was part of a strategy to persuade loyalist paramilitaries to abandon violence and criminality for good which he hoped would bear fruit in the autumn.
The shooting last month of prominent loyalist Mark Haddock, however, unnerved UUP members after it was blamed on individuals within the UVF.
Mr Haddock survived the attack despite being shot six times in Newtownabbey on the outskirts of Belfast.
