Next month's Ulster Unionist Council meeting will be a true 'defining moment' for party, says David Trimble.
An Ulster Unionist Council showdown between the David Trimble and Jeffrey Donaldson wings of the Ulster Unionist Party will take place next month and will be a true "defining moment" for the UUP, according to party leader Mr David Trimble.
The UUP officer board, with Mr Trimble and his chief internal opponent, the Lagan Valley MP Mr Donaldson in attendance, last night heard legal advice judging that the UUC meeting called by anti-Belfast Agreement Ulster Unionists was validly requisitioned.
The Donaldson camp motion wants the threat of disciplinary action lifted against the Lagan Valley MP and his Westminster colleagues Mr David Burnside and the Rev Martin Smyth. They face potential expulsion from the party for resigning the party whip at Westminster.
Mr Smyth said after the meeting that the UUC would take place in "early September" but explained that a specific date and venue was yet to be decided upon. The decision to validate the UUC proved that the UUC had been properly requisitioned, he added.
Mr Trimble expressed confidence that he would win the vote at the UUC. Asked did he think those who had tabled the UUC motion had a chance of winning, he replied bluntly, "No, I don't."
"It is perfectly clear there is a settled view within the party. It may be by a narrow majority, but there is a settled view. What is at stake here is the question of the direction of the party, and the question of whether what we have been endeavouring to do over the past four or five years is right or not," he added.
Asked would he consider his leadership position if he lost the vote, he said: "We are not contemplating anything other than our continued success."
When Mr Donaldson was asked did he think he would win the UUC vote, he said there was "very little appetite" within the UUP for disciplinary action against him and his colleagues.
"People just want to see this set aside now, and let's get down to the politics and the issues that need to be addressed," he added.
Mr Trimble said it was always clear that this issue was going to go back to a Council meeting. "And, if I may coin a phrase, that meeting will be a defining moment for the party. I hope that it will result in matters being settled in such a way that we have people abiding by the decisions of the Council," he added.
Mr Trimble would not comment on the possibility of a split in the UUP between his and the Donaldson blocs of the UUP. But he said, "there is no point going to a Council meeting unless people are going to accept that result. I assume, therefore, that those people who requisitioned this meeting intend accepting the result because there will be a result and that result I hope will put an end to that which we have had to endure over the past weeks and months".
One possible olive branch was held out to the dissident MPs. Trimble supporter and party officer Mr Ken Maginnis also read a statement last night stating that the disciplinary action against Mr Donaldson, Mr Burnside and Mr Smyth was deferred until after the UUC meeting.
This deferral was decided upon "in the hope that the three MPs concerned would reconsider their position in respect of the party whip," said Mr Maginnis.
Mr Trimble continued his "whistle-stop" tour of the party's 18 constituencies yesterday, meeting party officers and grassroots members. His internal opponents described these meetings as a "charade", claiming that Mr Trimble was only meeting Ulster Unionists sympathetic to his views and policies.
Mr Trimble said there was always such criticism, which he described as a secondary issue. He added that he had left it to constituency members to organise the meetings, which he found useful.
