DUP welcome for Brexit stance of UUP grandees

Two Eurosceptic DUP MPs have warmly welcomed the support of Ulster Unionist grandees for Brexit.
By The Newsroom
Published 20th Jun 2016, 21:19 BST
Updated 25th Aug 2016, 19:41 BST
From left Peter Bone MP, Tom Pursglove MP, Sammy Wilson MP and Ian Paisley Junior MP in the Great Hall at Stormont for a pro Brexit press conferenceFrom left Peter Bone MP, Tom Pursglove MP, Sammy Wilson MP and Ian Paisley Junior MP in the Great Hall at Stormont for a pro Brexit press conference
From left Peter Bone MP, Tom Pursglove MP, Sammy Wilson MP and Ian Paisley Junior MP in the Great Hall at Stormont for a pro Brexit press conference

Ian Paisley Junior and Sammy Wilson, speaking at Stormont yesterday, praised the letter sent to Farming Life by senior figures in the UUP calling on the UK to quit Europe.

Mr Paisley said: “I welcome the fact that people like David Trimble, Lord Maginnis, Lord Kilclooney, David Campbell, are seemingly more in touch with grassroots feeling within the unionist community now than they have ever been and that they have grasped this essential point.”

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Mr Paisley, standing beside Mr Wilson and the Tory MPs Peter Bone and Tom Pursglove, who were in Belfast for a brief pro Brexit visit, added: “I’ve said this personally to [UUP MEP] Jim Nicholson, so he won’t mind me saying it publicly: For the last 20 years I have watched Jim Nicholson as a member of the European Parliament tell us how awful Europe is, how it is destroying the farming sector, how it has destroyed the fisheries sector, how as an MEP he is appalled by what happens.

“And at the one point when events says ‘stand up and be counted,’ he then decides to not be counted.”

Mr Paisley said: “The people in the Ulster Unionist Party who are campaigning to Remain are I believe on the wrong side of history.”

Related topics:EuropeMPsUUPDUPBrexitSammy Wilson