THE PROGRESSIVE Unionist Party has suffered another resignation, its second since the murder of a leading loyalist figure in May.
Former PUP deputy leader David Rose announced at the weekend he is quitting the small UVF-aligned party after what he called “a lot of soul-searching”.
Party leader Dawn Purvis, who took over at the helm of the small party following the death of David Ervine in January 2007, quit in June. This followed the murder of Bobby Moffett on the Shankill Road in Belfast.
The UVF is widely held to have been responsible for the killing.
She said at the time: “The UVF in their decommissioning statement last year had made clear that they had destroyed everything that was under their control.
“If individuals have held on to weapons, then they know the consequences of that, because the decommissioning legislation fell in February, and anyone caught with any weapons is liable to the full force of the law,” she warned.
After he resigned, Mr Rose told the Belfast Telegraph the murder acted as a “catalyst for the party”.
“It made a lot of people think about the direction that the party has been moving in. My feeling is that the party is becoming increasingly conservative in outlook. So that – along with the fact that the Bobby Moffett murder was just plain wrong – has prompted me to take the decision to go.”
Interim leader Dr John Kyle was not available last night for comment on the state of his party following the Moffett killing. He has pledged to remain in position until the PUP’s next conference, to be held in Belfast in October.
Earlier this summer, he made no secret of his shock at the decision of Ms Purvis, who now sits in the Assembly as an Independent, to leave the party. He has denied his party is in the process of an orderly wind-down.
Recognising the loss of what he called David Ervine’s “charismatic presence”, he said: “The challenge that faces us is, can the current political vehicle – the current party structure – that we are using, achieve those goals? Many of us want it to, but some serious questions have been posed and we are now working our way through those.”