Trimble to come out fighting?

The move yesterday by three of UUP’s MP at Westminster to no longer take the parrty whip may have delivered the party leader the opportunity to take punitive action against two of the three. More detail from Gerry Moriarty

Martin Smyth and Jeffrey Donaldson currently hold official office in the party, which opens up the possibility that Trimble can move against them through a meeting of party officers, probably some time this week.

The third member of the rebel team David Burnside had said last week that he wouldn’t be leaving the party, may have been slightly wrong footed by Donaldson’s decision to make an intermediate move which leaves him half way out and half way inside the party.

Insiders claim that David Trimble is now determined to see this latest challenge to his leadership through to the finish – although many will wait to see the proof of that before taking it at face value.

Mick Fealty

Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty