Trimble predicts 'meltdown' for splinter parties

Unionist splinter groups will suffer meltdown after the General Election, David Trimble claimed today.

The Ulster Unionist leader made the prediction as he insisted his party has now overcome a full barrage of personal attacks by the DUP, leaving only voter apathy as an enemy.

Chief among the casualties of unionist in-fighting will be the anti-Agreement parties led by North Down MP Robert McCartney and Cedric Wilson, Mr Trimble warned.

He said: ‘‘What is going to happen in this election isn’t the meltdown of Ulster Unionism, it’s going to be a meltdown of the splinters and the factions.

‘‘The UKUP will disappear, the NIUP will disappear and over the course of the next few years that is where I think the trend is going to be.’’

Despite Ian Paisley’s confident predictions that the DUP will inflict serious electoral damage on the Ulster Unionists, Mr Trimble stressed that only a low turnout stood in the way of success for his party in the Westminster poll.

‘‘The argument has been won, the DUP onslaught on us has disappeared,’’ he said.

‘‘They started off at the beginning with heavy personal attacks on me and others and hammering away but then they started softening their line when they realised when they got onto the doorsteps that this isn’t what the electorate want.’’

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