The Democratic Unionist deputy leader has condemned a call for a pact between the Ulster Unionist Party and the nationalist SDLP at the next Assembly elections.
Mr Peter Robinson dismissed the proposal from Ulster Unionist MLA Duncan Shipley-Dalton as proof of how far First Minister David Trimble's party "had departed from unionist values".
Mr Shipley Dalton argued in Fortnightmagazine that an electoral pact between the UUP and SDLP would enable both parties to save each other from the challenge posed by the DUP and Sinn Féin in their communities.
But Mr Robinson today claimed it was "an affront to unionists" to urge them to transfer their votes to a nationalist party ahead of the DUP.
"It is indicative of the present state of the UUP," he said. "What kind of unionist is it who would rather see nationalists sitting in the Assembly than unionists?"
Such proposals, the DUP deputy leader claimed, showed some pro-Good Friday Agreement UUP members were governed only by the principle of "political survival".
He continued: "I have no doubt that unionists will see that this kind of self-serving policy is both destructive of the union and will ultimately lead to the complete obliteration of the UUP.
"It makes all the tough talk about the role of nationalists and their failure to move against Sinn Féin/IRA ring hollow and exposes the moral vacuum at the heart of the party," he said.
PA