Tory link foils Adams' strategy - Sir Reg
Ahead of today's Ulster Unionist party conference, leader Sir Reg Empey tells Political Correspondent SAM McBRIDE that the UUP's link with the Conservatives can thwart republicans
SIR Reg Empey's bold venture with the Conservatives bore the flagging UUP some early fruit in June's European election.
Jim Nicholson was re-elected ahead of the DUP for the first time ever and the party has found a distinct niche within Northern Ireland's crowded pro-Union political field.
But of late there have been murmurings of unease at the electoral alliance – notably from the South Belfast Association and the ongoing unhappiness of North Down MP Lady Hermon at the link.
However, in a pre-conference interview with the News Letter, Sir Reg passionately defended his party's alliance with the Conservatives, arguing that it is a unionist bulwark, potentially linking the UUP into the next Government.
He said that a link with a major UK party was shown to be crucial by Sinn Fein's all-island organisation and Fianna Fail's plans to stand north of the border.
He said that the alliance was a key reason why Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams' call for the British Government to become a "persuader for a united Ireland" will fall on deaf ears if David Cameron enters 10 Downing Street.
"Imagine where unionism would be if both Sinn Fein and the SDLP were effectively all-Ireland parties – where you would have republican and nationalist ministers from the same parties in the cabinet in Dublin and in the Executive in Belfast – and we're sitting there with our two arms the one length?" Sir Reg said.
"The direction that we've been taking over the last two years has been, in our discussions with the Conservatives, to place us at the heart of the Union.
"If I was ever looking justification for what we are doing, we need look no further than your issue (Wednesday) where (Gerry) Adams makes his pitch for the British Government to bring about a united Ireland and the Irish government to be a persuader for a united Ireland."
Sir Reg said that Mr Adams' recent tour of the US was to get the Americans to pressure the British Government into pushing unionists towards a united Ireland.
"That is his strategy. I believe that what we are doing counteracts that because what does Gerry do if he meets a future British Government and somebody from our party is staring across the table at him?
"His philosophy is 'The problem is the British Government'. If the British Government decides they have no strategic interest in Northern Ireland, then it makes sense, from his point of view, that they become the people who pressurise us.
"I believe that the speech Cameron made at our party conference last year and indeed subsequently, when he took that issue head on and indicated that he would not be neutral on the Union, was bringing to an end that doctrine of neutrality as far as British Governments have been concerned.
"That is the very antithesis of what Adams is trying to do."
But Sir Reg stressed that he is not just interested in combating Sinn Fein. Ultimately, he wants the new alliance to “reach out” to those who either don’t vote out of disillusionment with local politics or believe in the Union but don’t vote for unionist parties.
The UUP has few Catholic members and, in its upper echelons, few female members.
Asked whether the new alliance can realistically convince those who have not traditionally voted for the party that it is changing if every candidate is male and Protestant, Sir Reg said: “Inevitably, you’ve got to move yourself over time to a position where your candidates are a reflection of the population in general.
“In other words, you’re going to have to have a variety of age, background, belief and obviously gender.”
The East Belfast MLA said that he is “very hopeful” that by the Assembly and council elections of 2011 that process will be more apparent to voters.
Sir Reg said that criticism of the South Belfast Ulster Unionist Association, who were accused of sectarianism for calling for a pact with the DUP at a time when the Tories had proposed a Catholic unionist for the seat, was unfair as they wrote the letter prior to the Conservative candidate being selected.
Asked several times whether he would rule out a pact with the DUP in marginal unionist seats, Sir Reg was more circumspect than Tory leader David Cameron, who told the News Letter: “None whatsoever.”
But the overwhelming tenor of his comments was that there will be no pact, arguing that the DUP has “never held either South Belfast or Fermanagh and tallies from the European election show that they don’t have the same support there that they did have”.
See Morning View, page 18
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Monday 13 February 2012
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