PUP funds continue despite report

David Ervine's party is linked to the UVF and Red Hand Commando

The Progressive Unionist Party is still receiving government grants despite a ceasefire watchdog recommendation that its money should be withheld.

The PUP, which is linked to the UVF, was entitled to an annual £27,000 grant because it has one assembly member.

Both the PUP and Sinn Fein lost this funding last year because the Independent Monitoring Commission said paramilitary activity was continuing.

Sinn Fein's fine was renewed but the PUP's funding resumed in April.

In May, the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) said that the small loyalist party should lose its grant, but the government did not act immediately on this recommendation.

Instead, it has been consulting on the matter while continuing to pay the party in monthly instalments.

'Double standards'

Sinn Fein assembly member Alex Maskey accused the government of "breathtaking double standards".

He said it "confirms our view that the IMC was primarily a tool of the securocrats to be employed against Sinn Fein".

Last week, current Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain told MPs he intended to "watch developments carefully" before reaching a decision in the context of an IMC report due in January.

By then, eight months will have passed since the commission made its original recommendation.

In September, the IMC blamed the UVF for five murders and 15 attempted murders as part of its feud with the LVF.

In its special report on the loyalist feud, the IMC reiterated its view that the PUP should lose its grant.