Trimble preparing for bid to win back post
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble was today preparing to secure his party’s backing for a return as Northern Ireland First Minister in a crucial Assembly vote next week.
Mr Trimble was due to face opponents of the Good Friday Agreement at a meeting of the UUP’s 110 member executive at party headquarters in Belfast’s Glengall Street.
The Upper Bann MP is hoping to return as First Minister on the back of the IRA’s historic act of decommissioning confirmed earlier this week.
However, several anti agreement members of the party including UUP president the Reverend Martin Smyth and former MP William Ross have expressed concern about whether the IRA’s decommissioning act was the start of a process and not a one-off event.
Mr Ross yesterday called for the 860-member Ulster Unionist Council to be recalled to examine the circumstances of IRA decommissioning properly.
Mr Trimble confirmed immediately after it was announced by the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning that it had witnessed the putting of IRA weapons beyond use that he intended to seek the First Minister’s post which he resigned from in July.
However if he is to return, he will require a majority of unionist Assembly members as well as majority of nationalist Assembly members under Assembly procedures.
While he is expected to receive nationalist backing, he is not guaranteed a majority of unionists because one Ulster Unionist MLA, Peter Weir, has defied him in several votes at Stormont.
Mr Weir has been a strong critic of the party’s participation in government with Sinn Fein.
There was speculation that Mr Trimble might today try to have a motion passed at the Executive meeting which would compel Mr Weir to support him in any Assembly vote.
However, a party spokesman said: ‘‘We will have to see what happens on the day. The motion will emerge as events unfold.’’
