Ireland

Robinson predicts UUP election clear-out

The UUP will be cleared out in the Westminster election as voters vent their frustration at Mr David Trimble over broken promises…

Mon May 14 2001 - 01:00

The UUP will be cleared out in the Westminster election as voters vent their frustration at Mr David Trimble over broken promises, the DUP claimed today.

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We saw way back in the early 1970s when unionists had enough.What they did was that they cleared out the old brigade in the Ulster Unionist Party. I believe that is the situation today where there will be a clear out of the UUP
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Mr Peter Robinson, DUP Deputy Leader

Deputy leader Mr Peter Robinson predicted several UUP MPs would be toppled in the General Election in the same fashion as the UUP was damaged during the 1970s over power sharing.

The East Belfast MP claimed during the launch of his party's Westminster and Local Government Manifesto in Belfast today that there would be "a clear-out of the UUP" in the same way as there was after the Sunningdale agreement.

"We saw way back in the early 1970s when unionists had enough," he declared. "What they did was that they cleared out the old brigade in the Ulster Unionist Party. I believe that is the situation today where there will be a clear out of the UUP,'' he added.

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Mr Robinson predicted his party would hold on to its seats at Westminster but claimed they could also take several UUP seats including North Belfast, Strangford, East Derry, East Antrim and Mr Trimble's seat of Upper Bann.

"We will also improve the number of seats and votes in the district council elections and we will do that because unlike the UUP we have kept our pledges."

Mr Robinson and the party's leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, attacked the release by the Ulster Unionists of an alternative DUP manifesto stating: "Ten things the DUP will not be saying today.''

Mr Paisley dismissed the UUP document as "bitter vinegar that has been stinking in Glengall Street's vaults for considerable time".

Mr Paisley accused the UUP and other pro-agreement parties of pedalling the myth that there is no alternative to the Good Friday Agreement.

He insisted his party could renegotiate a better deal for unionism with a stronger electoral mandate behind it.

"Our alternative is trust opposed to treachery, democracy as in the rest of the UK as opposed to a fascist dictatorship, truth and not lies, pledges kept and not broken, no veto for any party except for the people of Ulster, the voice of the people expressed through the ballot box must prevail,'' Mr Paisley said.

PA