Ulster Unionist mistruths the latest attempt to defend UVF link

2.15.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 16th Jun 2006

Alliance Party Vice Chair, Michael Long

Alliance Party Vice Chair Michael Long has said that Ulster Unionist mistruths are no way to defend their Assembly link to representatives of the UVF.

Responding to a press statement where Ulster Unionists erroneously claimed the Antrim Council Alliance Group had backed an Ulster Unionist candidate for Deputy Mayor, the Castlereagh Councillor stated: "In each an every case where a non-Ulster Unionist candidate for Mayor or Deputy Mayor existed, Alliance backed that candidate -- and that includes Antrim.

"It is absolute rubbish to suggest the Alliance group in Antrim backed an Ulster Unionist Deputy Mayor. A member of the Alliance group in fact proposed an Independent SDLP alternative.

"The Ulster Unionists are simply getting pettier and pettier in their defence of a purely tactical manoeuvre in the Assembly based purely on self-interest rather than the greater good.

"It is time they took the advice of their own MP, admitted their error, and broke the link."

ENDS