UUP meeting after claim of secret DUP talks
UUP MLA David McNarry
SPECULATION is mounting around what was discussed during high level meetings between the DUP and the Ulster Unionists – talks which were kept secret from most UUP MLAs who yesterday called an emergency meeting to discuss the issue.
The private inter-party meetings were revealed on Monday when Ulster Unionist MLA David McNarry made public that since last June he has been involved in talks with senior DUP figures including First Minister Peter Robinson.
He claimed that he had consulted UUP leader Tom Elliott before establishing contact with the Ulster Unionists’ larger rival.
Some UUP colleagues yesterday dismissed his claims as “fantasy” while others, unhappy at not being informed of the sensitive issue which divides the party, said they feared that what he was saying was right and held Mr Elliott responsible.
When contacted by the News Letter last night, Mr McNarry would only cryptically say: “Very regrettably, you get nothing out of me.”
Asked why that was, he replied: “I can’t even go into that.”
On Monday, Mr Elliott was in Scotland. However, on his return yesterday there was deep unhappiness among many UUP MLAs who were in the dark about the initiative.
The weekly morning meeting of the party’s 16-strong Assembly group adjourned without discussing the issue in detail because they ran out of time.
However, another meeting was called for 1pm to discuss Mr McNarry’s comments.
Members of the party were reluctant to go on the record about what had happened at that meeting.
According to one senior MLA, the Strangford Assemblyman got little support from colleagues.
“There were no tantrums and no tears; it was all very typical Ulster Unionist politeness but there was disquiet,” he said.
“There was no decision taken on disciplinary action but it creates a real problem for Tom Elliott.”
Some other current and former party members were more blunt.
Writing on Facebook, former party researcher Michael Shilliday – who remains a member and spoke in favour of entering opposition at a fringe event at the party’s conference – said: “David McNarry doesn’t speak for me. If he speaks for the UUP then it and I are coming to the end of the road.”
Alex Benjamin, the party’s former Press officer, said that Mr McNarry should leave the party.
“Perhaps the gentleman in question who barely scraped in last time in Strangford has other things on his mind than just ‘unity’,” he said.
In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph on Monday, Mr McNarry said he had begun talks with the DUP last June, the month after his party was reduced to one ministry at Stormont in the Assembly elections.
He also said that the UUP’s sole Executive minister, Danny Kennedy, now attends the DUP’s pre-Executive ministerial meetings to co-ordinate strategy.
The veteran former UUP chief whip said he had initially approached a DUP special adviser before contacting Finance Minister Sammy Wilson, and eventually it had moved onto “a higher level” – a reference to Mr Robinson, who last week made clear that he still wants to form a closer relationship with the UUP.
Mr McNarry said: “Danny Kennedy is working extremely well with the DUP group in the Executive and he attends their ministerial meetings.
“The DUP meet together to discuss what is on the agenda for the Executive.
“As a minister, Danny is a major player in that. He meets to hear what their thoughts are and he shares his thoughts with them.”
Mr McNarry said that he has long favoured closer links with the DUP.
“I have been in continual discussions with the DUP; on many occasions we have tried this and failed over the years,” he said.
“There is absolutely nothing to benefit the Ulster Unionist Party by going into opposition.”
Mr McNarry said that the immediate objectives of the talks were to ensure that only two – not three – unionists stand in the European election in 2014 and that there is voting cooperation against nationalists and the Alliance Party in the council and Assembly elections.
He also suggested that some day a DUP first minister may choose a UUP member as his junior minister.
See Morning View, page 18
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
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