Battered UUP consider 'corporate leadership'

Senior figures in the Ulster Unionists are looking at plans for a corporate leadership of the party in the wake of David Trimble’s resignation, it was claimed today.

Senior figures in the Ulster Unionists are looking at plans for a corporate leadership of the party in the wake of David Trimble’s resignation, it was claimed today.

In a hard-hitting statement, Ulster Unionist Council member and newspaper columnist Alex Kane attacked suggestions that a team of several leading figures could run the party.

However other UUP sources claimed today the corporate leadership, which could include leading figures like MEP Jim Nicholson, former Stormont minister Sir Reg Empey and Lord Kilcloney, would only take temporary charge of the party through the summer before a leader is elected in the autumn, possibly September.

As members of the UUP’s 108-strong executive prepared for a grim post-mortem on Saturday on their heavy Westminster and local government losses, Mr Kane said a new regime was needed to take over and not the team responsible for a disastrous election campaign.

He said: “It comes as no surprise that senior members of the Ulster Unionist Party are considering the possibility of a ‘corporate leadership’ scheme to see the party through the next few months.

“And it comes as no surprise, because it is typical of the arrogance, the debilitating culture of ‘we know better than you’, and the ear-stopping indifference to the views of others, which has brought this party to its knees.

“The UUP needs a new and clearly identifiable leader. It needs a new regime at the centre.”

In a traumatic General Election, the Ulster Unionists lost four of their five Westminster seats in their centenary year.

Three of them, including party leader David Trimble’s seat, fell to the Reverend Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists.

Only North Down MP Lady Sylvia Hermon remained, keeping the DUP’s Peter Weir at bay with a 4,944 majority and with the backing of cross-community Alliance Party supporters.

The UUP also lost 40 local government seats across the province while the DUP gained 52.

Mr Kane said a number of serious questions had to be addressed by the party.

He asked: “Who appointed and then re-appointed the advertising company responsible for the party’s campaign material?

“Who gave the thumbs up to the ‘Simply British’, ‘Decent People’ and Red Bus disasters?

“Who are the members of the election campaign committee and what part did they really play in the campaign?

“Who was responsible for the leaflets and newspaper advertisements published by ‘Concerned Ulster Unionists’ and ‘Concerned Citizens For A Better Future’?

“On whose information, research and statistics was the party relying when it boasted that our vote and seats would increase?

“What are the full financial consequences of our electoral losses?

“How much money did the campaign, the mini-manifestos, the pre-election leaflets etc cost? Who authorised it? Where did the money come from?

“Who, exactly, provides money for the UUP?

“And – most important of all – who made the key decisions in all of these areas?”

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