Unionists still back peace process, says envoy

A majority of unionists continue to back the Northern Ireland peace process despite the growing crisis in David Trimble’s Ulster Unionist Party, it was claimed today.

US Special Envoy Richard Haass said he believed there was still a unionist partner to drive forward the political process in the North.

“The polls show a majority of unionists who have a position of what I would call conditional support for the peace process and their view is that they would be willing, for example, to support power-sharing in all of its manifestations so long as republicans give up paramilitary activity,” he said.

“I still think that there is a unionist partner out there.”

The crisis within Ulster Unionism deepened last night as moves began to expel three rebel MPs from the party.

Party leader David Trimble, finally losing patience with his hardline critics, has set up a disciplinary committee to deal with Jeffrey Donaldson, the Rev Martin Smyth and David Burnside.

Mr Trimble said their decision to resign the party whip at Westminster had triggered a crisis that left the leadership with no alternative but to take firm action.

“We can’t be expected to indefinitely put up with a situation where there is a party within a party,” he said.

Party officers decided by five votes to two at an emergency meeting to set up a disciplinary group under the chairmanship of Enniskillen solicitor Raymond Ferguson.

The three dissidents resigned the whip in protest at the leadership’s policy on the peace process.

Their resignations followed last week’s decision of the Ulster Unionist Council to vote by 54% to 46% to support Mr Trimble’s view of the peace process and oppose a proposal by Mr Donaldson to reject the British and Irish Governments’ Joint Declaration on the way forward in the peace process.

Mr Haass said the internal problems within the UUP had to be sorted out, but the political process had to be persevered with in the meantime.

“I would hope that unionist politics would work in a way where the political leadership would be reflective of what all the polls indicate the reality is,” he told Radio Ulster.

“Which is that you have a majority of unionist voters who support conditionally – but do support – working within the construct of the Good Friday Agreement, and I believe the Joint Declaration.”

Ambassador Haass is in London to meet Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy and senior nationalist and unionist politicians.

He was due to hold talks with SDLP leader Mark Durkan today.