DUP Assembly Member for North Down, Peter Weir has responded to a news article in the Sunday Life newspaper featuring David Trimble and concerning the prospects for an Ulster Unionist getting a seat in a future Conservative cabinet. “I am pretty certain that if MY party is linked with the Conservatives that we will see someone from here appointed to a Government post”
David Trimble went on to say that the Ulster Unionists had merely weeks to make up their minds on whether or not to formally link-up with the Conservatives:
“The TORIES aren’t ruling out a June election so they’ll be ready in January to begin candidate selection meetings across Britain and they’ll want to do the same here in Northern Ireland whether or not there’s a link-up agreed.”
Speaking today Peter Weir said:
“David Trimble’s comments at the weekend belie Ulster Unionist denials of his influence behind the scenes in this proposed UUP-Tory link up. Despite Reg Empey’s protests to the contrary, it is clear that the real driver behind this talk of merger is the rejected ex-UUP leader David Trimble. His comments at the weekend reveal a concerted campaign by the former UUP leader to bounce his former party in a direction that many members feel extremely uncomfortable with, namely fully-fledged merger with the Conservatives. David Trimble left the Ulster Unionists and jumped ship to the Conservatives after the voters of Upper Bann sent him packing. Now he is appearing inside newspapers referring to the UUP as his party and his new political home as “The Tories”, issuing threats about time running out for a link up with the Conservatives. Trimble is clearly trying to bounce his successor into serving up the Ulster Unionist Party on a plate. He also fools no-one with his protestations that he isn’t after a Tory cabinet place.
The pace with which this merger is being pushed, most visibly by David Trimble must be unsettling to many UUP members with Labour Party sympathies: people like Sylvia Hermon, Fred Cobain, Michael McGimpsey and Ken Robinson cannot be happy that their party’s independence in Parliament is being sacrificed at the behest of a man who led them to crushing electoral defeat.”