By Brendan Anderson

EMBARRASSED Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leaders were attempting to regroup Tuesday after being told they must sever their links with a party connected to a Loyalist paramilitary group.

Assembly Speaker Eileen Bell told the UUP their voting deal with the Progressive Unionist Party broke the rules and must be ended.

The move was the culmination of months of stinging criticism of UUP leader Sir Reg Empey after he forged the deal with the PUP, a party which speaks for the banned Ulster Volunteer Force.

In what he believed was a shrewd political move at the time, Empey invited PUP leader David Ervine to join the Ulster Unionist Party Assembly Group. The group did not exist previously, but was aimed at giving Ulster Unionists 25 Assembly votes to Sinn Fein’s 24.

In the event of a restored Assembly, these figures would mean three ministerial posts for the UUP and two for Sinn Fein. It would also mean the combined ministries of the UUP and Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists would provide an overall Unionist majority on a new Executive.

The Assembly is currently sitting in a powerless “shadow” form after being recalled for a limited period by Northern Secretary Peter Hain. Sinn Fein has boycotted the sittings, which they regard as a waste of time.

The British and Irish governments have given the North’s political parties a deadline of November 24 to reach agreement on a “proper” power-sharing government.

Following Bell’s ruling, Sinn Fein remains the second largest party in the Assembly and, under its complicated system of allocating Executive posts, has second choice of ministries behind the DUP.

For Empey, the speaker’s ruling meant a humiliating setback without political gain after months of enduring attacks from the DUP. His own party colleagues, too, made their opposition known with some lesser figures resigning and the UUP’s only MP, Sylvia Hermon, publicly opposing any pact with a party linked to a paramilitary group.

Bell, announcing her ruling Monday, said she had taken legal advice before coming to the conclusion that the UUP-PUP pact was in breach of Assembly rules.

David Ervine was furious at the turn of events, announcing he intended to challenge Bell’s ruling. The PUP leader, a strong supporter of the Good Friday Agreement, appeared anxious at the message being sent out to hard-line activists in the UVF.

“When a reasonable scumbag like me can’t be in mainstream politics, how do you think the others will feel. I think it is a mistake,” Ervine said.

Empey blamed DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson for influencing the speaker’s decision by challenging the legality of the pact.

“This we regret, as the consequence is a promotion of Sinn Fein into second place in the Assembly, a position which was not given to them by the electorate in 2003.

“Leaving aside the possibility that we could see a change to the number of Ministerial positions, thereby not altering the number that we would be entitled to receive, no negotiation can alter the fact that what the DUP has done by intervening on Sinn Fein’s behalf, is guarantee that Gerry Adams will have second choice ahead of fellow Unionists,” Empey said.

Sinn Fein said they were not surprised by the speaker’s ruling. Assembly Member Francie Molloy said the pact between the PUP and UUP “for the purposes of Assembly arithmetic, was indeed a breach of the rules.”

“Aside from the obvious hypocrisy involved in the UUP linking up with the PUP in such a formal way, having for decades refused to talk to Sinn Fein and subsequently collapsing the political institutions over alleged IRA activity, it was fairly obvious to anyone involved in Assembly procedures that the link contravened the existing regulations,” Molloy said.