Published Friday, 23 October 2009
On the eve of the UUP annual conference the party insisted its pact with the Tories offered unionist voters a chance to strengthen ties between Northern Ireland and Britain.
But political opponents, plus left-wing critics from inside Ulster Unionist ranks, have attacked the decision to fight the election under a joint Ulster Unionist/Conservative Party banner.
Shadow foreign secretary William Hague, who will address the Belfast conference on Saturday, repeated his party's pledge to take Northern Ireland MPs elected under the pact into a future Conservative government.
But the DUP have claimed Conservative plans to fight in all 18 Northern Ireland constituencies risked splitting the unionist vote and handing seats to republicans.
In a further development an open letter sent to UUP leader Sir Reg Empey by disgruntled party colleagues characterised the new political scheme as an effective "Tory-takeover".
Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey said: "We in the Ulster Unionist Party are able to offer the electorate something new - a move away from 'old' politics to start looking at real issues.
"I believe we need to put Northern Ireland at the heart of the Union, sharing in the normal, mainstream politics of the rest of the UK.
"This is what the UUP and the Conservatives are working for."
Four Ulster Unionist Party members opposed to the plan, Roy Garland, Dr Christopher McGimpsey, George Fleming, Councillor Ronnie Ferguson, urged a rethink on the Tory link-up in a letter to Sir Reg.
"The new arrangement is a great deal for the Conservatives. They tried and failed to gain support here over a decade ago," they wrote.
"In the 1992 General Election they received 5.7% of the popular vote. Their last outing was in the 1993 Local Government Elections when 9,437 brave souls gave the Conservatives their First Preference Votes.
"Under this new dispensation the UUP leadership are offering the Tories a Northern Ireland-wide organisation, tens of thousands of loyal voters, around 150 councillors, over 20 MLAs and two seats at the Executive table at Stormont."
The letter feared a future where "the Ulster Unionists have become little more than the eccentric old maiden aunt who lives in David Cameron's house but to whom no one pays a blind bit of notice".
The Ulster Unionist Party's sole MP Lady Sylvia Hermon has so far, however, refused to back the new political venture.