UUP MP voices discomfort over PUP link-up

Eyewitness claims that the Ulster Volunteer Force was involved in extortion and other criminal activities were today cited by Ulster Unionist MP Lady Sylvia Hermon as a reason for her unease over her party’s decision to link up with the Progressive Unionists in the Stormont Assembly.

The North Down MP, a member of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee which today launched in Armagh its report on organised crime in the North, again expressed her discomfort over the UUP’s decision to allow David Ervine, the leader of the UVF-linked Progressive Unionists, into the Ulster Unionist Assembly Group.