New pressure on Trimble after defections
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble today faced fresh demands to resign following the defection of one of his MPs to another party earlier this week.
The Lisburn branch of the Ulster Unionists issued the call after their local MP, Jeffrey Donaldson, quit the party for the Reverend Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists.
Two other former Ulster Unionist Assembly members joined him in the DUP this week – Lagan Valley MLA Norah Beare and Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA Arlene Foster.
After a branch meeting, UUP members in Lisburn criticised members of the party who “were relentless in persuing the expulsion” of Mr Donaldson and Miss Beare.
They blamed Mr Trimble for the party’s performance in the November Assembly election, in which the Ulster Unionists fell behind the DUP and Sinn Féin in the popular vote for the first time.
“The unionists of Lagan Valley voted overwhelmingly for candidates opposed to the Belfast Agreement,” the branch declared.
“They mandated Jeffrey Donaldson and his colleague Norah Beare to go into the Assembly and work with other unionists of a like mind to secure a better Agreement.
“In so doing they have our full and unequivocal support. We believe that David Trimble is primarily responsible for the losses sustained in the Assembly elections by the UUP.
“Such a result has left our once great party humiliated. We believe it is within the best interests of unionism that David Trimble should now step down as unionist leader. We have no confidence in his ability to lead the UUP or unionism in the future.
“It is time for him to go.”
Mr Donaldson has been urged by Mr Trimble and Alliance MLA Seamus Close to resign his House of Commons seat and seek a fresh mandate from voters in Lagan Valley as a Democratic Unionist.
The Lagan Valley MP said Mr Trimble should quit as UUP leader and claimed he had left the party because it had abandoned core unionist principles.
He also accused supporters of Mr Trimble of “vindictiveness” and pursuing a vendetta against him and other members of the UUP opposed to the Good Friday Agreement.
