Sharp divisions emerged among Ulster Unionists yesterday over the best course for the party and the future of its leader following the South Antrim byelection defeat by the anti-agreement DUP.
Dissident UUP MPs said the result showed deep dissatisfaction with the direction Mr David Trimble was leading the party, with some calling for him to step down or consider his position. However, several other senior party members insisted Mr Trimble's leadership was not under threat and there was no alternative to the Belfast Agreement.
The outspoken anti-agreement UUP MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, stopped short of calling for Mr Trimble to consider his position, but said the party was facing electoral meltdown and should withdraw from the Executive of the Belfast Assembly in the absence of decommissioning by the IRA.
"Clearly the party needs to urgently review its present policy and approach to this political process because clearly we are out of touch with the electorate, we are out of favour with the electorate and unless we get our act together fast we are going to pay a very heavy price at the next election," he added.
Mr Donaldson said his party could not sustain a position where it was sitting in a government with Sinn Fein's Mr Martin McGuinness and others linked to the IRA which was refusing to decommission its weapons.
Asked whether he would challenge Mr Trimble for leadership of the UUP, Mr Donaldson said there was no vacancy at present and he would not reduce the debate to one of personalities, as the media would love.
Mr Willie Ross MP echoed Mr Donaldson's call. He said voter disquiet about the entire Belfast Agreement, not just the Patten proposals to change the RUC, had led to the by-election defeat.
"I think it's the whole agreement," he said. "People believe they were misled and let down and lied to by the Prime Minister, and David Trimble walked into it, and the unionist population is not in a forgiving mood."
Asked whether he would consider challenging Mr Trimble's leadership, Mr Ross said he did not want to "get into that ball game", adding however that a leadership challenge by someone was a possibility.
Fellow dissident MP Mr Willie Thompson said the by-election result showed that Mr Trimble had followed a policy which had failed. "He should give way to a new leader before the next election," he said. Mr Thompson ruled himself out as a possible leadership challenger.
The Rev Martin Smyth MP, who took 43 per cent of an Ulster Unionist Council vote against Mr Trimble last March, refused to say if he would mount a fresh attempt for party leadership. Mr Smyth said Mr Trimble should consider his position. He said the Patten report had "soured the people completely".
However, Mr Ken Maginnis MP insisted that Mr Trimble's leadership was not under threat. Mr Maginnis said he was not hugely surprised at the result because the party failed to get a clear message to the electorate to motivate enough people to vote.
He asked what the alternative was to Mr Donaldson's proposal for the party's withdrawal from the Executive. "Is there no benefit to society that at least the killings, by and large, have disappeared, that our policemen and our soldiers are not being shot at on a day-by-day basis?" he asked.
"Is there no advantage that people are being forced to face up to the reality to how we run a health service, an education service, look after the environment, create jobs? Is there no advantage that we have got that responsibility within our own hands?"
Mr Michael McGimpsey, the party's Minister for Culture Arts and Leisure, said the electorate had given the party a clear message, and it would listen to it.
Asked about Mr Trimble's position as party leader, he said there was no alternative. "We do not knee-jerk in our party. We are not hysterical. We are not downhearted. We learn our lessons and we go back again and again. We never give up. As far as David is concerned, there is no alternative. It's like the agreement. There is no alternative."