Trimble faces Unionist critics

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble was due to face some of his biggest critics today as his party's Assembly candidates prepared to discuss election tactics.

With Northern Ireland due to go to the polls on November 26, there is concern among some in the UUP that it could be punished by voters following the collapse on Tuesday of the latest peace process deal.

A party source said: “We were told this week that we would be going into an election with a significant decommissioning move from the IRA and proof that it was beginning to wind down paramilitary activity.

“What we got was a decommissioning act that has no credibility and no tangible evidence that it is committed to ending paramilitarism.

“People are dispirited by all this. It’s been a terrible week for the party.”

Among the candidates Mr Trimble could be facing today are rebel Ulster Unionist MPs David Burnside and Jeffrey Donaldson who have been locked in a bitter dispute with the leader over their decision to resign the whip at Westminster in a row over policy.

Mr Donaldson has been critical in recent days of his leader’s failure to secure guarantees from the IRA in the latest deal that it would carry out a transparent act of decommissioning.

Today’s meeting also follows the withdrawal of three candidates for personal reasons.

Former Belfast Lord Mayor Bob Stoker is to be replaced by Chris McGimspey as the Assembly candidate in west Belfast after standing down for personal reasons.

Willie Lamrock has withdrawn from Foyle because of work commitments and Ivor Whitten also dropped out of the UUP ticket in Newry and Armagh.

On Tuesday, David Trimble put on hold a carefully choreographed peace process deal because he was unhappy with the lack of clarity around the latest IRA disarmament act.

The Ulster Unionist leader has been pressing the IRA since Tuesday to waive a confidentiality clause in decommissioning legislation which it invoked.

This prevented General de Chastelain from providing specific information on the type of arms destroyed by the IRA and the exact weapons capability of the organisation.

The peace process suffered a further setback last night when the head of the decommissioning body General John de Chastelain warned British Prime Minister Tony Blair he would not tolerate any attempt to force him or his commissioners to publish an inventory of IRA weapons without the group’s consent.

An IICD spokesman said: “With regards to confidentiality if the commissioners were forced to disclose the inventory without the IRA agreeing to it, they would judge their position to be untenable.”

To make matters worse, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was accused by hardline unionists of misleading MPs about what he knew about the decommissioning act.

During exchanges with Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith on Wednesday, Mr Blair told MPs General de Chastelain “gives certain information – not the full information, but certain information – to us, as the two governments”.

“Although we are not at liberty to disclose that information without his permission, we are working hard to try to find a way in which we can do so, because I believe, on the basis of what we know, that people would be satisfied if they knew the full details.”

However in meetings with the Democratic Unionists, UK Unionists and the Northern Ireland Unionists, the General said the only detail he had given Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on the latest IRA arms move was the information already in the public domain.

Downing Street last night denied Mr Blair had misled the house.

Sinn Féin figures Alex Maskey and Martin Ferris were due in London today to brief journalists on the latest setback to the peace process.

Meanwhile Liberal Democrat Northern Ireland spokesman Lembit Opik was due to visit Belfast where he will join senior members of the cross community Alliance Party on the campaign trail.