Trimble accused of losing party's trust

Beleaguered David Trimble tonight faced the threat of a new leadership challenge without the support of his deputy after he was accused of losing the trust and confidence of his troubled and hopelessly split Ulster Unionist Party.

South Antrim MP David Burnside, once one of his closest confidants, called on him to stand aside in a bid to halt a disastrous electoral slide.

Mr Trimble is due to go forward for re-election next month, but opponents have insisted he must go if the party has any chance of recovery. Even supporters of the leader who has been under pressure for more than two years, fear he could could be ousted on March 27.

Sir Reg Empey, a former minister, in the powersharing executive, and another ex-Trimble ally, is being urged to put his name forward.

Lord Kilclooney, the former MP John Taylor, and deputy leader, revealed tonight he would back him.

Mr Burnside, who ruled himself out of any contest, also claimed Mr Trimble could no longer unite and rebuild the party after the failure to hold off the challenge of their bitter rivals in the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists in November’s elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

They also fell behind Sinn Féin because of growing Unionist opposition to the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Burnside declared: “There is a sea change in opinion throughout the membership who want a leadership that can unite and restore the party to its position of dominance within Unionism once again.”

Mr Trimble, who has fought one leadership, tonight pledged to resist a second one.

His spokesman confirmed: “He considers it as his duty to offer himself to the party again.”

Mr Burnside called for changes at the top after walking out of a bad-tempered meeting involving MPs, MLAs and other senior party members when he banged the table.

One insider claimed: “Burnside got a rough ride. The meeting was angry and antagonistic towards him.”

Mr Trimble narrowly defeated the south Belfast MP, Rev Martin Smyth, now party president, in a March 2001 leadership challenge, and even though some sources claimed Sir Reg may hold back this time, opponents believe it has to be now or never, otherwise the party risks a humiliating defeat in June’s European elections.

Sir Reg was unavailable for comment tonight, but Lord Kilclooney confirmed he would have his vote in a leadership contest. He blamed six senior officers for plunging the party into crisis because of poor management.

Lord Kilclooney told PA News: “I continue to support David Trimble. However I do not think it is possible for him to re-unite the party. That is a problem. He is damaged because of the actions of those people.

“We can limp on like this in the month ahead, but we may have to face a challenge to the leadership in the foreseeable future and if Reg Empey stands I will back him.”

The Ulster Unionists have been hit by a series of defections to the rival DUP at Westminster, the Assembly and at a grassroots level.

Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson and two Assembly colleagues, Norah Beare and Arlene Foster, left last month.

Under party rules, the party leader must seek the endorsement of his ruling council every year at its annual general meeting.

Mr Burnside claimed the Upper Bann MP could not regain the confidence of unionist voters because “he is carrying too much baggage from the failures of the Belfast Agreement“.

“He is perceived to have failed to deliver for unionism. He is blamed by the majority of unionists for abandoning the UUP’s pledge of ’no guns, no government’, and for failing to protect the proud title of the RUC.

“The vast majority of unionist voters also have no confidence in him as a negotiator. They also see him as having become totally detached from unionist grassroots opinion.”

Mr Trimble’s record as leader had been one of “managerial incompetence and electoral decline“, he said, with many members disturbed at the way the party was being run, its public relations operation, the state of its finances and its electoral decline.

Mr Burnside also attacked Mr Trimble’s handling of disciplinary action last year against him, party president and Mr Donaldson for resigning the party whip at Westminster in a row over policy.

He accused the leadership of being “vindictive“, driving traditional unionists out of the party and costing the party around 80,000 when it lost a High Court challenge.

The UUP, he complained, was now perceived as being “more liberal” and more supportive of the Good Friday Agreement than the cross-community Alliance Party.

Its relationship with “our traditional friends and allies” in the Protestant Orange Order and other marching organisations was at “an all-time low“.

He also lambasted the party’s “ill-conceived and damaging” Simply British campaign during last November’s election which saw the party lose the Union flag in a new logo and posters depicting fish and chips and a Mini with a Union flag on its roof.

“The party leader showed gross incompetence by adopting such a naïve, counter-productive and vote-losing campaign which would be more aptly described as ’Simply Clueless’ than ’Simply British’,” he said.

Mr Burnside noted that, when Neil Kinnock, John Major and William Hague lost elections, they were replaced by the Labour and Conservative Parties.

When Ian Duncan Smith was “seen not to be up to the job” he was also replaced by the Tories.

Mr Burnside believed a new “united” leadership team could be constructed in a month to replace Mr Trimble.

“It is amazing, if not almost inconceivable, that a leader who has led the party through failure after failure in the last three election campaigns should be considering submitting his name for another year at our AGM at the end of March,” he said.

“If our leader is to be judged on performance then he should go immediately.”