DAVID McNarry has claimed that he has information which could “bring the Ulster Unionist Party tumbling down”.
The UUP veteran, who was expelled by the party last week for breaches of discipline, claimed last night to have sensitive information about the party in which he spent more than four decades.
In a statement, Mr McNarry repeatedly attacked UUP leader Mike Nesbitt, whom he described as a “dictator” and “full of his own importance”, for his expulsion.
Last night, the UUP declined to comment on the Strangford MLA’s latest comments.
In his statement, Mr McNarry singled out for thanks two DUP MLAs in his constituency — Simon Hamilton and Michelle McIlveen — for contacting him with “kind and gracious” messages about his situation.
When asked by the News Letter whether that signalled that he may apply to join the DUP or take that party’s whip, Mr McNarry said: “No. It was just a recognition that they had gone to the trouble of sending me a message, more or less pointing out that there hadn’t been any messages from my erstwhile Assembly group.”
Mr McNarry would not go further when asked about ever joining the DUP but said that he had “found a new niche as an independent” since resigning the UUP whip in January and that he had “no plans to join any party” but would be “preaching the gospel of unionist unity”.
One senior DUP source told the News Letter that the party was unlikely to accept Mr McNarry if he applies.
Mr McNarry has repeatedly claimed in recent months to have minutes of DUP-UUP contacts which could embarrass senior UUP figures but to date none have been produced, leading some in the party to claim that he has been exaggerating.
When asked yesterday if that information is now likely to find its way into the public domain, he said: “It is, yes.
“I would be doing that carefully on legal advice and there are some revelations which if I was to release them now would probably bring the UUP tumbling down.”
Mr McNarry claimed that he had “always, in the past, accepted team decisions and the internal party discipline process which was part of that. However, I now realise that I could never be comfortable being expected to bow down to a dictator in charge of the Ulster Unionist Party.
“That is not what our party has ever been about. When a leader, full of his own importance, goes public clearly indicating that my face does not fit and I would not be welcome in his team under any circumstances, there is no point in prolonging the agony.”
Mr McNarry said that he would therefore not be appealing “this pernicious and deeply unfair judgment” which expelled him for telling the News Letter that up to five UUP MLAs may follow him out of the party.
sam.mcbride@newsletter.co.uk
twitter: @SJAMcBride