Trimble's unionists are swept away

[Alkman]

Trimble's unionists are swept away



Success of Paisley's forces leaves once-mighty UUP with just one seat as leader and Nobel laureate considers his future


Angelique Chrisafis, Ireland correspondent
Saturday May 7, 2005
The Guardian



The Ulster Unionist party was in meltdown last night after its leader, David Trimble, lost his seat to Ian Paisley's hardline Democratic Unionist party and what was once the biggest party in Northern Ireland was reduced to only one MP.

Mr Trimble, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, had been MP for Upper Bann for 15 years, but lost by more than 5,000 votes, a margin that surprised even the winner, a gospel-singing meat wholesaler, David Simpson.

Mr Trimble, who appeared close to tears on the podium at the count, must now decide whether to resign as party leader after the most catastrophic election in the UUP's history.

When he took the post in 1995, the UUP had 10 MPs to the DUP's two. Last night, in the party's centenary year, only Lady Sylvia Herman had retained her seat in North Down. The UUP lost three seats to the DUP and one to the SDLP, whose deputy leader, Alasdair McDonnell, became the first nationalist MP for the affluent, traditionally unionist South Belfast seat.

Mr Trimble said he was proud of his 15-year record in the House of Commons. "The DUP will know that with success comes responsibility. I believe they have inherited from Ulster Unionism a very strong position for unionism and I hope they manage to safeguard that position over the course of the months to come."

Asked whether he would resign, he said he would consult senior colleagues. David Burnside, a long-time critic of Mr Trimble within the party, also lost his seat and said the Ulster Unionists were "destroying ourselves". Asked if Mr Trimble should resign, he said he had already "held on too long".

The DUP, now the biggest Northern Ireland party at Westminster, finished with nine seats, saying the unionist people had spoken out against the Good Friday agreement and "pushover unionism".

The DUP leader, Ian Paisley, said Mr Trimble brought the result on himself: "David Trimble took the wrong road."

In South Belfast, the SDLP said Mr McDonnell's victory illustrated a "Robert McCartney factor" against Sinn Fιin.

Dr McDonnell, a GP with a surgery close to the area where Robert McCartney was killed, was the most vocal critic of Sinn Fιin over its handling of the murder by IRA members.

Sinn Fιin's Alex Maskey, a former mayor of Belfast, was more than 1,000 votes down on the Stormont election in 2003.

The SDLP's Brid Rogers said: "Instead of condemning the murder, he condemned the police who tried to solve the murder." She said people in Magennis's bar on the night of Mr McCartney's murder were workers for Mr Maskey - an allegation he has refused to comment on.

Sinn Fιin's Bairbre de Brun said it was "impossible to tell" if the McCartney murder had an impact. Sinn Fιin comfortably took the SDLP's Newry and Armagh seat, increasing its tally of absentionist MPs to five.

But the SDLP halted Sinn Fιin's advance into its moderate nationalist heartlands in Derry. Party leader, Mark Durkan, held John Hume's Foyle seat by about 6,000 against Sinn Fιin's general secretary, Mitchel McLaughlin, apparently benefiting from a tactical vote by unionists.

The Sinn Fιin president, Gerry Adams, retained West Belfast with 70% of the vote and a majority of more than 19,000. The party's share of the vote in West Belfast increased by 4.4% at the expense of the SDLP.

Ian Paisley retained his North Antrim seat with a majority of 17,965 and a 5% increase in his vote.



http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election/story/0,15803,1478584,00.html