UUP seeks £12K annual fee from Orange Order

The Ulster Unionist Party is seeking £12,000 per year in affiliation fees from the Orange Order, which has 120 seats on the UUP’s powerful ruling council.

Party chairman James Cooper said the fee will bring the order more into line with the amounts paid by the 18 UUP constituency associations.

However, William Ross, another senior Ulster Unionist, said he fears the move is a "back-door attempt" by the UUP leadership to weaken the Orange Order’s influence.

Reformers within the party have long been seeking an end to the order’s automatic right to 120 of the 860 ruling council seats.

The Orange Order has pledged to strongly resist the move. Dawson Bailie, the grand master of the order in Belfast, said he believes the UUP is seeking revenge because most Orangemen don’t support the Good Friday Agreement.

He also said the Orange Order could retaliate by charging the UUP to use its halls for party meetings.