Tory spokesman meets loyalists

Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary David Lidington

Loyalist paramilitaries are looking for a way to end their involvement in violence, the Conservative spokesman on Northern Ireland has said.

David Lidington was speaking after meeting members of the Loyalist Commission.

The umbrella group represents the UVF, Red Hand Commando and the UDA.

Mr Lidington said the groups wanted a way out of paramilitarism to concentrate on working to help their communities.

The Aylesbury MP also met Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey and was due to meet Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness.

He said members of the Loyalist Commission, which includes clergymen and community representatives, stressed very strongly their "sense of being beleaguered".

"What the UDA and UVF have done and continue to do is utterly wrong, all violence and criminality must stop.

"But they asserted very strongly to me that they wanted a way out of paramilitarism, to concentrate on working to help their communities."

Sir Reg Empey said he told Mr Lidington that Northern Ireland had been paralysed for three years because republicans were unable to commit to exclusively peaceful and democratic means.

"Irrespective of what the IRA say or don't say, this paralysis cannot continue.

"The political institutions cannot stay in deep freeze any longer," he said.

On Tuesday, Mr Lidington and party colleague Oliver Heald, will meet Chief Electoral Officer Denis Stanley.

The Conservatives want the introduction in Britain of the new system of individual voter registration already in place in Northern Ireland.

The party has said it is in response to growing concerns about electoral fraud in Britain.

Mr Lidington and Mr Heald - the shadow secretary of state for constitutional affairs - will discuss the Northern Ireland experience with Mr Stanley.