Give us seats in Lords, DUP tells Blair

The British government is under pressure today to recognise Northern Ireland’s new political order by giving the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists seats in the House of Lords.

As Ulster Unionists surveyed the damage to their party following a general election rout which saw them lose their leader David Trimble’s seat and three other MPs, DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson laid down a marker to Prime Minister Tony Blair and his new Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain.

The East Belfast MP said he expected the DUP, which has nine MPs to the Ulster Unionists’ one, to be granted seats in the House of Lords.

“We would consider it as being absolutely essential for the government to immediately reflect the political order in Northern Ireland,” Mr Robinson said.

“It is a ridiculous state of affairs that there is no House of Lords representation for Northern Ireland’s largest party. We will not tolerate circumstances which allow that to continue.”

The Ulster Unionists have eight Lords.

The DUP, with 241,000 votes in the general election, has none despite having almost 33.7% of the vote.

The Ulster Unionists, by way of contrast, fell to 127,314 votes in this election – just 17.7%.

Sinn Féin captured five seats, gaining an SDLP seat in Newry and Armagh and securing a total of 174,530 votes or 24.3% of the poll.

However Gerry Adams’ party suffered a bitter blow when it failed to gain the target seat of Foyle where SDLP leader Mark Durkan stormed to an impressive 5,957 victory over Sinn Féin’s Mitchel McLaughlin.

The SDLP also held South Down and pulled off a remarkable coup in South Belfast where deputy leader Dr Alisdair McDonnell exploited a split in the unionist vote to become the constituency’s first nationalist MP.

The party’s share of the vote was 125,626 votes, 17.5% of the total vote.

Meanwhile, David Trimble is pondering his future today following the loss of his Upper Bann seat to the DUP’s David Simpson.

Today Mr Trimble blamed Republicans and the British government for his party’s problems.

Mr Trimble told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The basic underlying cause is that the Republican movement have not behaved properly over the years. They have not themselves implemented the [Good Friday] Agreement. If they had implemented the Agreement then they would have disarmed completely in May 2000 - that is what they undertook to do, that is what they failed to do. Rather than implement the Agreement, the Republican movement have exploited the Agreement.

“The net result of all of that is that there is total disgust in the Unionist community with them.

“That is the basic underlying factor. A contributory factor is that the government, which ought to have upheld the Agreement and policed the Agreement, has been far too indulgent to Republicans.”

Mr Trimble said he suspected that ultimately the DUP would seek to have the Agreement implemented in full. “The DUP, despite the rhetoric, appear to me to have given up the objective of destroying the Agreement,” said Mr Trimble.

Mr Trimble said he would reflect, along with colleagues, on his position as UUP leader.

Asked whether he would step down this weekend, Mr Trimble said: “Not this weekend, and I’m not sure what I will do, to be quite honest. I am going to consult with colleagues. There is a collective leadership of the UUP. We will come to a consensus about the way forward and take it from there.”

Sinn Féin’s chief negotiator Martin McGuinness told the programme that there was a “mighty responsibility” on the DUP to break the deadlock.

He added that he hoped that the IRA would respond positively to Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams’ argument that the time has come for the pursuit of an entirely political resolution to the conflict in the North.

“I passionately hope that the IRA will agree with Gerry Adams’ analysis and I think that that on its own, because it clearly would be seen as a unilateral initiative by the IRA, could have the effect that the cessation had in 1994.”

Mr McGuinness added: “We are in a defining phase of this entire process … we are all fed up to the back teeth with the continual obstacle-building and delays.”