Conservative leader under pressure over UUP stance on devolution

BRITISH Tory leader David Cameron was under intense pressure last night to force his Ulster Unionist allies to back the transfer of policing powers to Belfast.

UUP hard-liners have threatened to vote against the devolving of control of policing and justice at a crunch vote today, despite a personal intervention by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to try and get them to change their minds. US lawmakers have also written to Mr Cameron, whose Conservative Party has an electoral pact with the UUP in the North, in a last-minute bid to get full Stormont backing for the devolvement of the powers.

The UUP claims it is opposed to the move as the Assembly has not yet proved itself in the handling of less contentious issues, such as education. However, the party leadership has made it clear it feels it was excluded from crisis talks dominated by Sinn Féin and the DUP at Hillsborough last month enabling the final piece of devolution to happen. A meeting between the UUP and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness ended after just three minutes with unionists accusing the Sinn Féiner of “aggression and bullying”. The UUP also attacked the findings of an opinion poll released by the British government, which showed 75% backing for the devolution move, saying the questions were loaded.

While Sinn Féin and the DUP have the electoral strength to push the vote through, a UUP rejection will deprive them of the unanimous support they have sought. The Hillsborough agreement, signed after nearly two weeks of round-the-clock talks at the Co Down venue, promised delivery of the republican demand for the devolution of policing and justice, plus the unionist call for the creation of new systems to oversee Orange Order parades. The deal was aimed at providing greater stability to the power-sharing administration. Sinn Féin junior minister Gerry Kelly accused the UUP of playing political games. “I have to say I have been bemused at the position of the UUP, who seem to be playing crude politics with, I think, everybody’s future here.”

The nationalist SDLP said it would back the transfer of powers, but it repeated its objection to the Alliance Party securing the post of justice minister which will be created under the devolution plan. The Alliance Party is favourite to emerge as a compromise candidate after the DUP and Sinn Féin agreed to move outside the normal power-sharing structures for allocating ministerial posts and opted instead for a cross-community vote in the Assembly.

The UUP stance is embarrassing for Mr Cameron’s Conservatives who supporter the Hillsborough deal and do not want to go to the polls aligned to a party which opposes it in the British general election expected on May 6.