Rodgers accuses Trimble of betraying nationalists

The SDLP’s Brid Rodgers has accused UUP leader David Trimble of betraying the nationalists who put their faith in him following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

On Saturday, Mr Trimble agreed to collapse the North’s political institutions by January unless the IRA proves that it has rejected violence.

Mrs Rodgers said the decision means that the UUP leader has now joined the ranks of unionists who are opposed to sharing power with nationalists and republicans.

“I have had many calls and many conversations with nationalists over the past 48 hours who are now asking: ‘What is he doing?’” Mrs Rodgers said.

“Is he now making it clear that he’s going to collapse the power-sharing Executive and the North-South institutions which are an essential part of the agreement – so essential that nationalists would not have signed up to it without them?”

The SDLP MLA, who is also the North’s Agriculture Minister, said nationalist voters supported Mr Trimble despite clear memories of him marching down the Garvaghy Road hand-in-hand with Ian Paisley after Catholic residents had been beaten from the road in 1995.

She said these voters had gambled on the UUP leader embracing the partnership element of the Good Friday Agreement and are now angered that he has decided to collapse the peace process because of an internal unionist crisis.