Statement by TUV Lagan Valley candidate Lyle Rea:
“Last August the UUP withdrew from the Executive with Mike Nesbitt saying that Sinn Fein’s “position of denial over the existence of the IRA against the word of the Chief Constable makes it impossible to do business with them. We are walking out of the executive because we cannot sit with Sinn Fein because we do not trust them.”
“Yet in their manifesto published yesterday the McGuigan murder doesn’t merit a mention and the IRA is only referenced in the section of the manifesto dealing with the past.
“The fact that a Government report revealed that the IRA retain weapons is ignored.
“The IRA Army Council isn’t even alluded to – in spite of the fact that it has a controlling influence over Sinn Fein.
“The UUP don’t even demand that Sinn Fein so much as publicly admit that the IRA exists!
“A few months ago it was, Mr Nesbitt told us, “a matter of principle that we [the UUP] are not prepared to sit at the Executive table when the IRA exists with a command structure at a senior level, are committing murder on the streets of our capital city … We will not share power with Sinn Fein while the IRA are murdering on the streets of Belfast and they are denying it.”
“If it was a “matter of principle” for the UUP that they would not sit in government with Sinn Fein/IRA in August and they have seemingly forgotten that “matter of principle” the following April one is entitled to ask where the UUP’s principles are now. Are the principles outlined in their manifesto equally expendable?
“It couldn’t be clearer. Vote UUP and you will get not change but more of the same rollover Unionism.
“TUV alone in this election is standing on a platform which is clear – we will not accept terrorists in government.”