Party 'split over policy'

William Ross: Denied dispute was over personalities

A senior Ulster Unionist has denied a split in the ranks of the party has anything to do with personalities, but is over its policy.

Three of the six Ulster Unionist MPs - half the parliamentary party - have been suspended after their decision to quit the party whip at Westminster.

Jeffrey Donaldson, Martin Smyth and David Burnside can appeal the suspension move, but not until a hearing in mid-July.

A UUP disciplinary committee said that under party rules anyone suspended from membership ceased to be a member, and forfeited all the rights and privileges of party membership.

On Sunday, William Ross, a former MP for East Londonderry, said the fallout was purely over party policy.

"Whenever you say David Trimble you are talking about personalities, you are personalising this thing," he told the BBC's Politics Show.

"It it not about personalities, it is about policies. It's about the way the party has been going over the last few years," he said.

The three MPs quit the whip in a move designed to increase pressure on Mr Trimble by refusing to endorse his policy on the recent British-Irish joint declaration.

The County Londonderry Grand Orange Lodge has threatened to withdraw from the Ulster Unionist Council if the joint declaration is not rejected.

Endorse policy

Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has called on the three rebel MPs to "draw back from the brink".

In an interview for BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics programme on Saturday, Mr Trimble defended the decision to suspend the MPs.

However, he said their actions in the weeks ahead could be crucial.

Mr Donaldson, the MP for Lagan Valley, has said he and the other two MPs would be taking legal advice.

Last week, Mr Trimble narrowly fended off a challenge from party rebels, led by Mr Donaldson, who wanted the party to reject the recent British and Irish joint declaration.

Mr Trimble, who criticised some elements of the declaration, whilst noting that the party had not accepted the document as a whole, secured 54% of the vote at a meeting of the party's ruling council. Mr Donaldson received 46%.

Last month's joint declaration outlined plans to reduce troop numbers to 5,000 as part of an attempt to move the Northern Ireland political process forward.

The joint declaration included five annexes dealing with security normalisation, policing and justice, human rights and equality, on-the-run paramilitaries and mechanisms to verify and monitor any deal.