UUP under fresh pressure to sever links with PUP
The Ulster Unionist Party is coming under pressure today to sever its links with the Political Unionist Party.
PUP leader David Ervine joined the UUP's Assembly group earlier this month in a move designed to ensure a unionist majority on any future power-sharing Executive.
The UUP was widely criticised at the time because the PUP is the political wing of the Ulster Volunteer Force, which is still deeply involved in extortion, drug-dealing, violence and paramilitarism.
The UUP is now coming under fresh pressure to sever its link with Mr Ervine following the attempted murder of a leading UVF member in north Belfast last night.
Mark Haddock is in a critical condition in hospital after being shot a number of times near his home in Newtownabbey.
His former UVF colleagues are the prime suspects in the shooting.
The SDLP has responded by urging the UUP to reconsider its relationship with the PUP, while Ulster Unionist MLA Esmond Birnie has admitted that the relationship may have to be severed if the UVF was behind the murder attempt.
