UUP leader hits at 'Sinn Féin scum'

The leader of the North's Ulster Unionist Party was under pressure tonight after branding Sinn Féin “scum” in an election count outburst.

Tom Elliott rounded on republicans who were celebrating a major gain in the Fermanagh/South Tyrone constituency.

Sinn Féin later attacked his remarks as being out of step with the co-operation between republicans and unionists at Stormont.

Sinn Féin took three of six seats in the Fermanagh area, ousting the nationalist SDLP.

But Mr Elliott, who was also elected, used his acceptance speech to attack Sinn Féin supporters for waving Irish tricolours.

“I see many people here today with flags, many of them flags of a foreign nation,” he said.

As republicans cheered and heckled back at him, he added: “I would expect nothing better from the scum of Sinn Féin.

“Their counterparts in the IRA have murdered our citizens.”

He later refused to retract his remarks and denied they were a throw-back to former times.

But Sinn Féin's Assembly Chief Whip John O’Dowd rounded on the UUP figurehead who was installed as leader last year.

“I share the views of many in the Ulster Unionist Party (that) Tom Elliott will never make a political leader,” said Mr O’Dowd.

“Coming out with comments like he has is not political leadership.”

Mr Elliott, whose party faces losses in the Assembly election, cited the history of IRA violence.

Mr O’Dowd referred to Mr Elliott’s former membership of the security forces, and the role of the British Army in the Troubles.

The Sinn Féin member said all sides had suffered in the conflict, but that the election had seen voters endorse the power-sharing government born out of the peace process.