By Brendan Anderson

Belfast businessman Sir Reg Empey has won the battle for the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).

Empey, Assembly Member for East Belfast, succeeds David Trimble as boss of a party which recently lost its position as largest Unionist party to the Reverend Ian Paisley’s hard-line DUP.

A former minister in the now suspended Assembly, Empey has the formidable task of uniting a party riven by bitter internecine feuding and wholesale desertion.

Empey, 57, was one of three candidates for Trimble’s job. He was elected on the second count by the party’s ruling council with 321 votes.

His main opponent, ex-army major Alan McFarland, received a surprising 287 votes. The third contender, David McNarry, initially thought to be a serious challenger to Empey’s bid, was eliminated after the first count.

The new leader said he was under no illusions about the difficulties of resurrecting the demoralized UUP after its electoral mauling at the hands of the DUP. In the weeks before the leadership vote, Empey said he believed the UUP was guilty of not listening to its supporters. He would change that, he said, if he was elected leader.

“It’s a mammoth task,” he said, “but we have faced great adversity before and we will meet the challenge.”

After witnessing at first hand the treachery suffered by Trimble before his resignation, Empey would have been relieved to hear the initial comments of his fellow contender, Alan McFarland.

“The priority for the party now is to get ourselves united and go forward. I am fully supportive,” McFarland said, adding, “I’m no Jeffrey Donaldson,” a reference to Trimble’s bitter critic who defected to the DUP shortly after Christmas.