Iraq war colonel rules out UUP leadership bid

Colonel Tim Collins ruled himself out today as a contender for the Ulster Unionist Party leadership.

He declared: “I’m not qualified to undertake such a momentous position.”

The former Royal Irish Regiment commander, famed for his eve-of-battle address to his men in Iraq, said he would need a greater understanding of the political complexities of Northern Ireland, his home country.

He is not a member of the Ulster Unionist Party, but former MP Lord Kilclooney suggested today that the ex-soldier could be the type of person who could provide the radical leadership which was needed.

He said: “It’s a minefield which needs cautious understanding and you must have that to become an effective leader.

“I have no experience of politics. I have a life in the real world and I would have to be acquainted with issues affecting ordinary people before I could be an effective member of a local assembly or indeed parliament.

”I am very flattered, but I am sure there is somebody better than me out there.”

Colonel Collins, 45, a father of five, was born and educated in Northern Ireland before joining the Army. He quit last year after 22 years, claiming the Army was in danger of becoming a glorified Home Guard because of underfunding and bureaucracy.

The UUP ruling council is due to meet on June 24 to elect a successor to David Trimble following the party’s disastrous General Election which left it with just one MP at Westminster.

With David McNarry already declaring himself as a candidate, he is likely to be challenged by Mr Trimble’s deputy Sir Reg Empey and possibly Alan McFarland, who is also a member of the suspended Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont.

Lord Maginness, the former Fermanagh/South Tyrone MP, is also believed to be considering putting his name forward.

But Lord Kilclooney claimed none of the four was good enough to be chosen because they had been so closely associated with the party’s electoral decline.

Half the party’s members at the Northern Ireland Assembly were also in danger of losing their seats, he claimed.

“We need a fresh leadership, not somebody tainted with the past,” he said.