A political movement will emerge to give voice to unionists opposed to the Democratic Unionist Party's sharing of power with Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland, a senior politician predicted today.
MEP Jim Allister, who quit the DUP in March over the Rev Ian Paisley's decision to go into Government with the republican party, said there was a hunger for an alternative to the current unionist parties.
Neither the DUP nor the Ulster Unionist Party - having decided to sit in government with Sinn Féin - were in a position to articulate the views of the many grassroots unionists who do not believe Sinn Féin is yet fit for power, he said.
However Mr Allister, who retained his seat and sits in the European Parliament as an independent MEP, said he had yet to decide whether he would lead any new movement.
"I am certainly aware that there is a hunger among disillusioned DUP voters and other voters who have been in touch with me, for a political vehicle to articulate their viewpoint," he told Inside Politicson BBC Radio Ulster.
Mr Allister added: "I believe that, in time, such a structure will emerge because without it traditional unionism has no voice now that both unionist parties have bought into the architecture and structures of the Belfast Agreement."
There are known to be several hardliners within the ranks of the DUP who are uncomfortable with their party sitting in government with Sinn Féin.
Several local councillors quit in protest but the Assembly party has, so far, remained solid behind Mr Paisley.
Mr Allister said up to two days before the restoration of devolution there had been members in the party who said they could not go into government with Sinn Féin, but who 48 hours later were prepared to back the deal.
He said the real issue hurting grass roots unionists was that there had been no addressing of the ethical issues which brought the current devolved government into being.
"We still have government ministers who are convicted terrorists at the heart of government. We still have Sinn Féin ministers clinging to office and clinging to an illegal army council of an illegal IRA at the same time.
"We have DUP ministers and other unionist ministers who don't know if those they are sitting in the cabinet room with are members of the army council - and don't seem to care if they are."
As the honeymoon ended and more and more disillusionment set in, it was "inevitable a new political movement will emerge at an appropriate point," he said.
Mr Allister's decision to resign from the party was the second time he had quit. In the mid 1980s he left active politics in disagreement with Mr Paisley's tactics over the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
His return to the fold came when Mr Paisley decided to cut his workload and give up his role as an MEP.
PA