Mr Jeffrey Donaldson has continued his assault on Mr David Trimble ahead of a meeting of the Ulster Unionist Party's 110-member executive in Belfast today where calls for the expulsion from the party of the Lagan Valley MP are expected.
In Kilkeel, Co Down, last night Mr Donaldson launched another attack on Mr Trimble and the pro-Belfast Agreement wing of the UUP. He said if the leadership refused to renegotiate the agreement, he and similarly minded Ulster Unionists would align themselves more closely with the DUP.
Mr Donaldson is still refusing to say if he will defect to the DUP, stating that it is one of a number of options he is considering. The force of his criticism of the UUP leadership, however, indicated that it is a very real possibility.
"If the Ulster Unionist leadership is unwilling to renegotiate the failed agreement, then there are others who will, myself included," he said. "Consequently I intend to use the mandate I have been given to work with the Democratic Unionist Party and with other unionists to achieve the change the unionist people voted for and to build a stronger unionist movement that will be capable of providing strong and principled leadership and preventing Sinn Féin/IRA from dominating Ulster politics."
Former UUP minister and Trimble supporter Mr Dermot Nesbitt said that party headquarters was being inundated with letters and telephone callers demanding that stern disciplinary action, including expulsion, be taken against Mr Donaldson. He said Mr Donaldson had to choose between loyalty to the party or severing his connections with it. Another senior UUP source said some form of confrontation with Mr Donaldson was likely today, although it would not be initiated by Mr Trimble.
Mr Donaldson told Mourne Unionist Association's annual meeting that Mr Trimble was pushing the UUP into the "second division" of Northern Ireland politics, and that unionist voters were deserting the party because of the "failed policy" of Mr Trimble and his supporters.
"It is clear that the leadership has little to show for the gambles they have taken with the integrity of our party. Now we have been overtaken by Sinn Féin/IRA for the first time in our history in terms of first preference votes cast at a major election. This represents a humiliation for Ulster Unionism," he said.