Former RUC counter-terror officer Jim Gamble hits out at Loyalist Communities Council over comments about Northern Ireland Protocol

Jim Gamble was speaking after the News Letter interviewed David Campbell, a former chairman of the Ulster Unionists, who now works with figures linked to the UVF and UDA under the banner of the LCC.

The LCC exists as a kind of channel between what Mr Campbell describes as anti-criminality elements within those groups, and mainstream unionism.

In Saturday’s News Letter, Mr Campbell had said that “because there has been a sticking to the position by the DUP [on the protocol], I think that has relieved pressure on the ground” for the leaders of loyalist organisations, by keeping their rank-and-file members placated.

“If that were to shift,” he warned, “then that pressure will come on big time again – of that, I have absolutely no doubt.”

Mr Gamble, a former RUC anti-terror officer who later headed up the UK-wide Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP), said of Mr Campbell’s comments that they were “totally unacceptable”.

“Who do they [the LCC] think they are?” he said.

“Too many sacrificed far too much for threats of ‘unrest’ to still hold currency.”

He said that the UDA and UVF “should be disbanded and pursued for the crimes they continue to commit,” concluding: “Leave the politics to the politicians.”