A senior loyalist politician today denied he was promised any post in the Assembly in return for joining the Ulster Unionist Assembly group.
David Ervine denied being promised a post in the Assembly
East Belfast Assembly member David Ervine, whose decision to join forces with the UUP has caused controversy in the first two days of the new Assembly at Stormont, also accused those in the Democratic Unionists who had criticised the move of hypocrisy.
He also expressed some understanding of the negative response from the father of a murder victim of the Ulster Volunteer Force, to which the Progressive Unionist Party is linked.
Mr Ervine said: "I have not been promised anything. One fool described me as a fool for not demanding to be a minister. That would be ludicrous. I have no intention, nor has anybody any intentions, of allowing me to be a minister in the Northern Ireland Executive."
Mr Ervine's decision to become part of the Ulster Unionist Assembly group could result in unionists having a majority of ministers in any future Stormont executive.
Prior to the move, the UUP and Sinn Féin both had 24 Assembly members in their ranks. But Sinn Féin would have been entitled to three cabinet posts as opposed to the Ulster Unionists' two because it had more votes in the 2003 Assembly election.
In that scenario, there would have been an equal number of nationalist and unionist ministers.
Mr Ervine's decision to join up with the UUP Assembly group will mean Sir Reg Empey's party will gain a ministry at the expense of Sinn Féin. The UUP will also be the second party to be called in Assembly debates, ahead of Sinn Féin, under the Assembly's speaking rights.
The move prompted the DUP leader, the Reverend Ian Paisley, to claim that the Ulster Unionists were legitimising a party with a link to an active paramilitary organisation engaged in criminality.
Mr Ervine responded today that he could remember Dr Paisley's involvement in the United Ulster Unionist Council and DUP members voting for a Progressive Unionist Lord Mayor in Belfast.
He also recalled how he and fellow loyalist politician Gary McMichael flanked former Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble on the way into talks in Stormont's Castle Buildings chaired by former US senator George Mitchell.
PA