DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson has told the Billy Wright inquiry that the LVF leader had information that David Ervine warned John Major in 1996 that the loyalist paramilitary was causing difficulties and had to be "dealt with".
He was one of the most outspoken campaigners for an inquiry into Billy Wright's murder and today Peter Robinson became its first high-profile political witness.
Mr Robinson has for years demanded answers about how INLA gunmen were able to murder the LVF leader with such ease in the Maze Prison in December 1997.
Wright's father David who claims there was state collusion in the murder was in Banbridge court to listen to Mr Robinson. Mr Robinson spent 75 minutes in the witness box. His evidence centred on two meetings he had with Wright.
At the first in his constituency office in Belfast in the summer of 1996, Wright told him he feared loyalists were planning to kill him. At the second meeting at Maghaberry Prison, Wright said he believed republicans were plotting to murder him.
Mr Robinson said that the first meeting came in the wake of Drumcree 1996, when Wright was a prominent figure during the stand-off.
He said Wright told him about his concerns about a meeting between loyalist politicians and the then British Prime Minister John Major in Downing Street.
Mr Robinson said one of the politicians had confided to Wright that David Ervine told Mr Major that the LVF leader was causing difficulties and needed to be - in his words - dealt with.