Unionists from the liberal and right-wing elements of the Ulster Unionist Party have clashed over future party strategy, with one member suggesting Mr David Trimble should jettison party dissidents, writes Gerry Moriarty
Mr Steven King, a senior adviser to Mr David Trimble, last night accused the Ulster Young Unionist Council of "astonishing immaturity" after it voted to disaffiliate from the Ulster Unionist Council should the council formally decide in February that the UUP remain in government with Sinn Fein.
The Young Unionists endorsed a motion by 30 votes to none with 11 abstentions that if the council endorsed "a decision for the party to remain in government with Sinn Fein/IRA", it would move to disaffiliate from the council.
Mr King, a member of the Young Unionists and an adviser to Mr Trimble, accused them of an inability to cope with the complexity of current politics in the North. He believed that implicit in the motion was opposition to power-sharing.
However, Mr Peter Weir, a Young Unionist and member of the anti-agreement Union First group, said he was not opposed to power-sharing but opposed to sharing it with Sinn Fein in the absence of substantial IRA decommissioning. If there was any move on IRA arms by February it would merely be "tactical and token", he believed.
Meanwhile, Mr Alex Kane, a political adviser to UUP Assembly Member Dr Esmond Birnie, has said Mr Trimble could challenge the right wing of his party as represented by those who opposed the agreement and the formation of the Executive and "emerge with a bigger, better, stronger party".
Mr Kane accused this section of the party of losing votes for the UUP, and suggested that if politicians such as Lagan Valley MP Mr Jeffrey Donaldson and those in Union First could not tolerate the current party policy, they should leave the party.