Trimble and Blair to hold crisis talks
Crisis talks between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble were due to take place in Downing Street today.
The UUP leader will travelling to London for a lunchtime meeting with Mr Blair to discuss moves to exclude Sinn Fein ministers from the Stormont power-sharing executive next week and their implications for the Good Friday Agreement, party sources said.
The discussions follow a round of meetings yesterday in Dublin between Mr Trimble and Acting Stormont First Minister Reg Empey with the government, Opposition parties and leading British and American diplomats.
Northern Ireland Assembly members are due to stage a four-hour debate next Monday on two motions from unionist parties to remove Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brun from their ministerial posts.
The motions are almost certain to fail as they require cross-community backing and the moderate nationalist SDLP and Sinn Fein have already stated their opposition to it.
However, it is believed that if the motions fail, the Ulster Unionists and the Reverend Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists will withdraw their ministers from the power-sharing government to protest against the failure of the IRA to disarm.
