Elliott defends merger rejection

Published Wednesday, 04 January 2012

Ulster Unionist Party leader Tom Elliott says the proposed merged between his party and the Northern Ireland Conservatives is unacceptable.

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Merger offer
Analysis

Speaking to UTV's Political Editor Ken Reid, Mr Elliott said that his party's grassroots members would not buy into any merger which had been proposed by Tory peer Lord Feldman.

The UUP leader spoke out after the Conservative peer wrote in Wednesday's Belfast Telegraph about the discussions that broke down before Christmas.

Lord Feldman said the UUP had made a mistake not to push ahead with the plans that he described as "bold and sincerely made".

He said the idea was to set up a modern, centre-right, pro-union party.

Tom Elliott says he is and will remain an Ulster Unionist. He says there was no chance of the party disbanding.
UTV's Political Editor Ken Reid on Twitter (@KenReid_utv)

Mr Elliott said: "We, in the Ulster Unionist Party, are somewhat disappointed that we had discussed a number of options with the Conservative Party over the last eight weeks."

"The Conservatives were only interested in talking about the one thing and that was about the disbanding of the UUP and merging with the Northern Ireland Conservatives."

"To me, that was not acceptable and I wasn't going to put that to our party and quite clearly I felt the Ulster Unionist members among the grassroots would not buy it."

Asked about the current state of the relationship between the two parties, Mr Elliott said that at the national level there is still a good bond.

He said: "We still have common themes, we still have common goals and we want to see the union progress."

"At a local level, there are difficulties and that goes back to the Westminster election of 2010 and the selection of candidates."

"If it had been left to the national Conservatives and ourselves, we probably would have had a continuing deal."

The Fermanagh South Tyrone MLA said the initial letter from Lord Feldman proposing the merger had taken him by surprise.

He said: "I would have liked more discussion on it. It came out of the blue to us and we were somewhat surprised."

Mr Elliott said that he and his colleagues would continue to work with the Conservatives at the national level.

He said: "At the national level we will want to feed into them the issues that are of significant importance to the people of Northern Ireland."

"But at the party level, I am Ulster Unionist Party born and bred and I will remain that way and I will continue to fight the Ulster Unionist corner here in Northern Ireland," he said.

The Tories say they are now set to form a new party in Northern Ireland after their offer to merge was rejected.

They say they will fight elections and run against UUP candidates in the region.

Comments

5 Comments

Stevo the Magnificent in Newtownabbey wrote (139 days ago):

I'm going back on what I wrote on a similar subject before Christmas, I wrote it was probably a good move to merge the UUP and Tories as long as the new NI Conservative and Unionist party could maintain their autonomy in NI matters, as well as autonomy in selecting election candidates. But the fact is the current so-called 'Conservative' party is nothing of the sort, but rather is a party that has been hijacked by liberal progressives, and intent on centralised command-and-control of all aspects of the party, with anyone expressing views outside the liberal orthodoxy being thrown overboard, hence why Cameron and crew would never accept the NI branch having autonomy to any degree, and exactly why Tom Elliot is absolutely correct in holding steadfast against the proposed move, more power to him! It would be better for the UUP and DUP to merge into a single right-leaning conservative party, sever every and all ties to the Orange Order and affiliated groups, drop the 'Unionist' and 'Ulster' in the titles, and call themselves something like the NI Christian Democratic Party or something apt and suitably descriptive, that way they can properly start reaching out to conservative (both socially and economically) Catholics...

JAE in Fermanagh wrote (140 days ago):

No chance of the party disbanding; just disentegrating if you keep going the way you are leading them. Redefine your strategy; set a policy to appeal to Unionism rather than maintaining the dinasaur approach. Take at the DUP head-on rather than shoring them up from the side lines!!! Remember; they are stolen all your policies as modelled by David Trimble. Those policies were the start of the UUPs downfall. Where are their weaknesses?? eh!

William in Killyleagh wrote (140 days ago):

Tom the UUP are finished anyway Merger or no Merger and by the way what is your MEP Jim Nicolson going to do as he was Elected under a joint Banner ????

John Bingham in lisburn wrote (140 days ago):

Interesting that Elliott defends his decision in purely emotional 'I'll not disband the UUP' terms. No vision on how he will make the UUP relevant again I think it is time for a new party

alexi in limavady wrote (140 days ago):

Just what we all need, another pro union party spliting the vote.