UUP urged to ditch PUP over death threats

THE Ulster Unionists are facing fresh demands to sever their ties with a loyalist party after the father of a murder victim claimed he had received death threats.

Cross community Alliance Party deputy leader Naomi Long urged UUP leader Reg Empey to end his party’s association with the Progressive Unionists in the Assembly after Raymond McCord said he had been warned twice in 24 hours his life was in danger from an Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) gang.

In May, the UUP admitted Progressive Unionist leader David Ervine, whose party is the political wing of the UVF, into its Assembly Group.