THE Ulster Unionists’ only hope is an alliance with the DUP, David McNarry has claimed.
Writing in today’s News Letter, the former UUP Assemblyman argues that the talks he was engaged in with the DUP could have seen both parties fight elections separately but sit as one party in Stormont.
Mr McNarry says a debate has been “going on for some time behind closed doors” within the UUP about either linking with the DUP or entering opposition in the Assembly. The talks, he adds, satisfied a demand on the doorstep for unionist unity and “what might be called the two-party future for unionism”.
“Such an approach would have the ultimate potential to face the electorate with a joint unionist programme, ensuring maximum transfer between candidates of both parties and operating in the Assembly as a single political designation.”
Also in today’s News Letter the former UUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson, who is now in the DUP, writes that he is familiar with the dilemma facing Mr McNarry.
He said that UUP members were wrong to fear that the DUP stifles internal debate and that Mr McNarry, who was disciplined over a media interview, has been unfairly treated.