Joining Conservatives 'a lifelong dream' for Trimble
Former Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble said today that he was "following a long-term ambition" by joining the Conservative Party.
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning former First Minister insisted the move would open up a "wider horizon" in his political career.
But he added that he did not want to "rush into" taking on a post in Conservative leader David Cameron's Shadow Cabinet.
"It's something that's been on my mind many times over the years," Lord Trimble told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
"Now that Northern Ireland is settled, I'm free to follow what's been an ambition for many years."
The announcement was seen as a coup for Cameron, and there was speculation that the peer would be quickly promoted to the front bench.
However, Trimble played down suggestions that he had a "beady eye" on a top job.
"Actually I said to David I don't want to be rushing into things. I don't want to be heading in that direction."
He added: "I think the first thing I should do is to get accustomed to their own way of doing things."
Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey said the decision by Trimble, who became a peer last year, would come as no surprise to those who knew of his interest in Conservative and national politics.
Trimble was the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party for 10 years and is the former MP for Upper Bann.
He was honoured along with former SDLP leader John Hume in 1998 with the Nobel Peace Prize after they helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement that year with Sinn Féin, loyalist and cross-community parties and also the Irish and British governments.
In 1999 he became First Minister of the new power-sharing Executive but became embroiled in a protracted battle with Sinn Féin regarding IRA disarmament and the winding down of its paramilitary structures.
At the same time he had to fight internal critics within the Ulster Unionists who demanded a tougher policy towards Sinn Féin.
That internal battle ultimately led to the rival Democratic Unionists eclipsing his party in the 2003 Assembly Election and then the meltdown in the 2005 Westminster Election which cost him his House of Commons seat.
