Ulster Unionists can see off DUP, says Mallon

The North's deputy first minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, said at the launch of his party's Westminster campaign that he believed the UUP could withstand the challenge from the DUP.

SDLP deputy leader Mr Seamus Mallon

But he said it needed to resolve "its own attitude to the Agreement" publicly, if it was to significantly sweep aside the challenge from the Rev Ian Paisley's party.

He dismissed claims by the DUP's Mr Peter Robinson that the general election would be a repeat of the February 1974 poll that saw several power-sharing unionists defeated.

When that party [UUP] resolves its own attitude to the Agreement and comes out clearly saying it will work it and work it fully, then that will take the legs from under the DUP Mr Seamus Mallon

"Political opinion is like a spirit level," Mr Mallon said. "The mercury moves and eventually stabilises.

"When that party [UUP] resolves its own attitude to the Agreement and comes out clearly saying it will work it and work it fully, then that will take the legs from under the DUP."

Mr Mallon urged the Ulster Unionists to adopt this approach rather than vie with the DUP in a "quasi anti-Agreement position".

The SDLP deputy leader also dismissed calls for a formal pact among pro-Agreement parties, claiming voters would choose for themselves tactically who they believed would best serve the purposes of the Agreement.

PA