Legal action threatened over withdrawal of UDA funds

A community group in the North has threatened to take legal action against the Stormont Executive over the withdrawal of British Government funding from the UDA.

The British Government had agreed to give more than £1m (€1.49m) to a "conflict transformation initiative" linked to the UDA as part of moves to get the loyalist organisation to abandon violence and criminality.

However, the North's Social Development Minister, Margaret Ritchie, blocked the funding due to the UDA's failure to decommission and end its illegal activities.

The independent organisation that was overseeing the "conflict transformation initiative" has now threatened to take legal action over the matter unless the funding is restored within 48 hours.