WESTMINSTER ELECTIONS: NORTHERN IRELAND:FORMER ULSTER Unionist leader David Trimble has written to Gordon Brown to complain about remarks made by Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward in a newspaper interview.
In his letter, Lord Trimble accuses Mr Woodward of “effectively asking unionists to vote for the DUP” by his criticisms of the Ulster Unionists’ electoral arrangements with the Conservatives.
Mr Woodward told the Guardian newspaper his position as Northern Secretary was “neutral on the union” between Britain and Northern Ireland.
However Lord Trimble is claiming the British position, as set out in the Belfast Agreement, is one of supporting the position of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom in accordance with the wishes of a local majority.
“I therefore must ask you is it the policy of the Labour Party to be neutral on the union and to encourage support for the DUP?” he wrote.
“Do you, as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, value the union with Northern Ireland?”
He added it was “completely unacceptable” to suggest, as Mr Woodward had done to the Guardian, that Tory leader David Cameron and Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey were “strengthening the hand of dissident republican terrorists” by their electoral strategy.
He called on the prime minister to “restrain” the Northern Secretary “from making such intemperate comments”.
He wrote: “Perhaps you would encourage him to show some concern that for the first time in 88 years, the police are unavailable [to] protect voters in the environs of our polling stations during this election.” Lord Trimble also criticised Mr Woodward over public expenditure cuts, accusing Labour of imposing cuts of some £435 million (€503 million) on Northern Ireland.
“Is such an assault on frontline public services congruent with Labour Party policy?” he asked.
Mr Brown’s office has yet to respond.
The Green Party in the North, meanwhile, has reacted angrily to what it says is a snub by the BBC.
The Politics Show at the weekend featured a debate involving six other Northern Ireland parties contesting this election but the Green Party was not included, the Green candidate for North Down, Steven Agnew, said.
Pointing out that the Greens have an Assembly member and three councillors in Northern Ireland, Mr Agnew claimed it was unfairly excluded from the BBC programme.
“Yet there was a party represented on that panel that has never had anybody elected so I cannot understand why the BBC snubbed us.” He added: “The BBC has denied the voters of Northern Ireland the opportunity to hear our views. We have contacted them for an explanation but we are yet to receive a response.”