Published Thursday, 14 October 2010
Brian Ervine is widely expected to replace John Kyle when the crisis-hit PUP elects its new leader at the weekend.
Crunch talks between the leader of the UVF and Mr Ervine were held on Thursday evening to establish the way forward prior to the party's annual conference.
Broadly regarded as being politically linked to both the UVF and Red Hand Commando, the party has been left in turmoil since the loyalist murder of Bobby Moffett on the Shankill Road in May.
The killing, branded by police as a UVF-linked "public execution", prompted then leader Dawn Purvis to quit the party.
Mr Ervine has already put his cards on the table in the meeting with the UVF's most senior leader.
"I think that they got it very, very wrong and what happened on the Shankill was despicable and is to be condemned and I condemn it wholeheartedly," Mr Ervine told UTV, just 48 hours before he is expected to take up the reins of the PUP.
"What it has done is that the progressive element within those organisations have had to reassess and had to prioritise and also have had to set mechanisms in place to guarantee and ensure that what happened on the Shankill will never happen again."
The Independent Monitoring Commission, which is also meeting in Belfast this week ahead of its next report into paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland, has warned the terror group that the Moffett murder must be the last.
John Grieve - a member of the paramilitary watchdog - told UTV: "It would be disastrous for them to do anything remotely resembling this again.
"And that should be made very plain to them - not just by us, but by all politicians, all members of the community. This is not the way to go on."
Last month, the IMC found that the murder of Bobby Moffett was sanctioned by the UVF leadership but the watchdog did not recommend that the murder constitutes a breach of their ceasefire.
In May 2007, the UVF issued what was supposed to be its 'end game' statement, followed last year by decommissioning.
It came after a UTV interview in 2006, in which a masked UVF man said: "The Ulster Volunteer force were the first organisation on the stage, to use your term. If in the future at any time leaving the stage we will be the final organisation to do that."
Mr Ervine is convinced there is still worth in trying to lead the UVF along a non-violent path.
"I believe that those progressive people who have risked their lives over the past ten years in order to bring peace to our streets and have been very successful in doing so, those people are really desirous and really eager to try and stamp out this type of thing in the future," he told UTV.
But Dawn Purvis believes she quit the PUP at the right time and, although wishing Mr Ervine and the party well, the new Independent Unionist representative added: "I think there is some naivety there in terms of what they are trying to do and I think it's a bit ironic, and the irony has certainly not been lost on me, that Brian Ervine's politics do not closely align with the values and principles of the PUP."