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08/10/2002
DUP to quit executive as UUP threatens deadline walkout
The DUP has announced that it will walk out of the executive on Friday and the UUP could follow them as early as next week.
As events gathered pace today, the revelations leave little doubt that the assembly will fall, only the question mark over the method of its disestablishment remains.
Following a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at lunchtime today, the UUP leader, David Trimble, pledged to take his ministers out of the executive within a week if Sinn Fein is not excluded from the executive.
The First Minister said that he had conveyed his party's position "very strongly indeed" and said that Sinn Fein should only return to the executive after the IRA had disbanded.
Earlier today, DUP party leader Rev Ian Paisley said that the DUP's two ministers – Peter Robinson at the Department of Regional Development and Nigel Dodds at the Department of Social Development – will leave their ministerial posts as of noon on Friday. Dr Paisley also called for new elections to be held immediately.
The crisis at Stormont follows allegations that Sinn Fein was involved in a 'spy ring' at the Northern Ireland Office. One Sinn Fein official has been charged with five counts of having information likely to be of use terrorists, and two other people - said to be associated with Sinn Fein - have been charged in relation to investigations into alleged information gathering. Another person has been arrested and is being questioned by police.
A clue as to the next move by the British government over the crisis came at a weekly briefing of Westminster lobby journalists yesterday. The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman, Godric Smith, seemed to rule out the imminent possibility of direct rule – as an alternative to the power-sharing assembly – by adding that there was no point in speculating on the consequences of failure, the rationale for which was that "it is always easier to bring things down than to build them up again".
This would suggest that a third suspension of the assembly cannot be too far away.
The government has been perturbed by persisting allegations of IRA involvement in the raid on Special Branch offices in Castlereagh and the trial of three suspected IRA men in Colombia for allegedly training Marxist guerrillas – what Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid described as the "Colombian Adventure".
Godric Smith said there were now "genuine concerns about activities happening that were incompatible with the agreement. Obviously it was important that Sinn Fein showed that they understood that".
(GMcG)
As events gathered pace today, the revelations leave little doubt that the assembly will fall, only the question mark over the method of its disestablishment remains.
Following a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at lunchtime today, the UUP leader, David Trimble, pledged to take his ministers out of the executive within a week if Sinn Fein is not excluded from the executive.
The First Minister said that he had conveyed his party's position "very strongly indeed" and said that Sinn Fein should only return to the executive after the IRA had disbanded.
Earlier today, DUP party leader Rev Ian Paisley said that the DUP's two ministers – Peter Robinson at the Department of Regional Development and Nigel Dodds at the Department of Social Development – will leave their ministerial posts as of noon on Friday. Dr Paisley also called for new elections to be held immediately.
The crisis at Stormont follows allegations that Sinn Fein was involved in a 'spy ring' at the Northern Ireland Office. One Sinn Fein official has been charged with five counts of having information likely to be of use terrorists, and two other people - said to be associated with Sinn Fein - have been charged in relation to investigations into alleged information gathering. Another person has been arrested and is being questioned by police.
A clue as to the next move by the British government over the crisis came at a weekly briefing of Westminster lobby journalists yesterday. The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman, Godric Smith, seemed to rule out the imminent possibility of direct rule – as an alternative to the power-sharing assembly – by adding that there was no point in speculating on the consequences of failure, the rationale for which was that "it is always easier to bring things down than to build them up again".
This would suggest that a third suspension of the assembly cannot be too far away.
The government has been perturbed by persisting allegations of IRA involvement in the raid on Special Branch offices in Castlereagh and the trial of three suspected IRA men in Colombia for allegedly training Marxist guerrillas – what Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid described as the "Colombian Adventure".
Godric Smith said there were now "genuine concerns about activities happening that were incompatible with the agreement. Obviously it was important that Sinn Fein showed that they understood that".
(GMcG)
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