Ulster unionist to defect to Tories

An Ulster Unionist councillor is defecting to the Conservatives in protest at the party’s deal with the Progressive Unionist Party, it emerged today.

Peter Bowles condemned the decision to link up with David Ervine’s PUP, which is associated with the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force, and said he did not want to be a member of a party with paramilitary connections.

The move comes just days after the UUP’s sole MP, Lady Sylvia Hermon, claimed the recent shooting of loyalist Mark Haddock and the refusal of the UVF to begin disarmament rendered the deal unsustainable.

Mr Bowles, 25, said: “The Ulster Unionists used to be the party of law and order and now it is linked to the UVF. Those guys haven’t changed at all. They’re still refusing to decommission.

“A party with links to paramilitaries is not a party I want to be part of.”

The former Young Unionist chairman also told the Sunday Times his decision had been influenced by the arrests last week in connection with the Loughinisland pub massacre in 1994.

A man and women were released without charge after they were questioned about the UVF murders of six Catholics as they watched Ireland play Italy in the World Cup.

Mr Bowles has held talks with David Liddington, the Conservative’s spokesman on the North, and the Co Down councillor will now become the party’s only elected official there.

On Friday UUP leader Reg Empey vowed to stick with his strategy of persuading loyalist paramilitaries to abandon violence.

The East Belfast Assembly member acknowledged the concerns of Lady Sylvia in the wake of claims the UVF shot loyalist Mark Haddock in the Monkstown area of Belfast on May 30.

But Empey said his decision was not taken lightly and was fundamentally the right course of action to take.

Last month the Ulster Unionists announced Mr Ervine would join their Assembly Group in a bid to ensure there would be a majority of unionist ministers in a future Stormont executive.

The move was criticised by the Rev Ian Paisley‘s Democratic Unionists, the Alliance Party and the SDLP who accused Empey‘s party of effectively adopting a paramilitary wing by accepting an MLA with loyalist paramilitary links into his ranks.