UUP 'regrets' PUP link defection

Sir Reg Empey (left) and Peter Bowles in happier times

The defection of a UUP councillor in protest at assembly links with PUP leader David Ervine is regrettable, a senior UUP figure has admitted.

Former Young Unionist chairman Peter Bowles has joined the Conservatives.

He said the UUP's assembly alliance with the PUP, a party linked to the paramilitary UVF, was "not the way to bring loyalists in from the cold".

However, senior UUP assembly member Dermot Nesbitt said it was a "risk worth taking if we succeed".

Mr Nesbitt said it was not just paramilitaries whom they were "trying to bring in from the cold" but also "the communities from which they come who feel alienated in Northern Ireland".

He said the assembly link, which would give the UUP an extra ministerial seat at Sinn Fein's expense if a power-sharing executive is formed, was "not unconditional".

"We still hold to the line that you cannot be participating in government unless you disarm and are totally free of any illegality," he said.

I think he should have jumped ship long ago, rather than do it mid-Atlantic David Ervine PUP leader

Mr Bowles, a councillor in Down District, said he agreed that "we have to bring loyalists in from the cold, but there are ways and means of doing things, and this isn't the way".

"I'm in politics to improve standards of living for everybody in my area, not for a link-up with the PUP for the sole purpose of gaining an extra seat on the executive," he added.

On Monday, Mr Ervine said that Mr Bowles should have made the move sooner.

"I think he should have jumped ship long ago, rather than do it mid-Atlantic," he said.

"It seems to me there's a great protestation - I think it's a bit like Yorick, methinks you protest too much."

The Ulster Unionists have come under widespread pressure after allowing Mr Ervine to join their assembly group.

On Friday, Sylvia Hermon, the Ulster Unionist Party's only MP, called for the assembly link to be severed because of ongoing activity by the UVF, to which the PUP is connected.

Lady Hermon warned the party had become "a hostage to fortune".

However, party leader Sir Reg Empey said while he "acknowledged and respected" Lady Hermon's views, he and others were "not prepared to walk away" from the deal.