UUP leader says Jeffrey Donaldson meeting was to discuss DUP leader switching parties

Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie. Picture: Liam McBurney/PA

Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie has said a meeting he held with Jeffrey Donaldson last year was to discuss the Lagan Valley MP switching parties.

Mr Donaldson, now the DUP leader, has denied claims that he considered joining the UUP after he lost out in an initial leadership battle with Edwin Poots.

But Mr Beattie has now confirmed that he initiated the meeting last June and that he understood it was organised to discuss Mr Donaldson joining his party.

However, a DUP minister said talk of his party leader rejoining the UUP was “tittle tattle”.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has denied claims that he considered rejoining his former party the UUP (Liam McBurney/PA)

Mr Donaldson last week said he was approached by the UUP on the issue but insists he never had any intention of rejoining a party he left in 2003.

He has portrayed the exchange with the UUP as more of a conversation on achieving greater co-operation among unionists in Northern Ireland.

Weeks later he became DUP leader after Mr Poots was forced out following an internal party coup.

But Mr Beattie told the BBC Nolan Show that at the time he initiated the meeting, he sensed that Mr Donaldson  was not happy with the direction of the DUP under Mr Poots.

The invite was to come and think about coming to consider rejoining the Ulster Unionist Party so that is what the conversation was about

He said: “I sent a message to Sir Jeffrey Donaldson saying he would be welcome to come back to the Ulster Unionist Party, I sent him that message and from that we organised a time, a date, a place, and we met up.”

He added: “Yes indeed I was the person who initiated to Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to ask him did he want to come and have a chat because I would welcome him back into the Ulster Unionist Party, and he did not say no and we met up and we discussed it.

“There was absolutely conversations about how do we promote the brand of unionism which I was trying to promote. There was no conversation about parties joining together or parties working together or indeed forming a new party. This was about my messaging.

“The invite was to come and think about coming to consider rejoining the Ulster Unionist Party so that is what the conversation was about.

Jeffrey Donaldson set out his position and I can tell you speaking to other people in my party, they accept that as well and want us to actually focus on what comes next rather than tittle tattle from the last year

“Everything we talked about was in that vein.

“At that time we were having a conversation because my sense was he was not happy.”

Jeffrey Donaldson has said that he “politely declined” an invitation from the UUP to rejoin.

DUP Economy Minister Gordon Lyons described talk of his party leader rejoining his former party was “tittle tattle”.

Mr Lyons said he and other DUP members he had spoken to accept Mr Donaldson's insistence that he never had any intention of joining the Ulster Unionists.

“I don’t think that the public are interested in what happened a year ago or who said what, even now,” he told reporters in Belfast on Monday.

“They’re looking to the future. If you listen to what people are actually concerned about right now, it’s the future, it’s about cost of living, it’s about what comes next for them. That’s where our focus is right now as well.”

Asked if he had contacted Mr Donaldson to seek assurances on the issue, Mr Lyons added: “No, I’ve had no need to raise those concerns. Jeffrey Donaldson set out his position and I can tell you speaking to other people in my party, they accept that as well and want us to actually focus on what comes next rather than tittle tattle from the last year.”