The prospects of the Good Friday peace agreement being carried in a referendum in Northern Ireland received a huge boost on Saturday when the ruling council of the Ulster Unionist Party backed it with a resounding 72 per cent majority.
It was a crucial test for Mr David Trimble's leadership. He had said beforehand that if the council rejected the agreement he would ask for the referendum to be called off. The result followed the party executive's 55-23 vote in favour a week earlier. Mr Trimble was praised for his courage by the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, and the talks chairman, Senator George Mitchell.
Opponents of the agreement in the UUP warned they would not "quietly go away", and two of the party's MPs vowed to campaign for a No vote. The motion passed by the council, by 540 to 210, endorsed the leadership's actions on the agreement and pledged support for Mr Trimble "in his continuing determination to resolve those areas where concerns still exist among our people". These concerns centre on police reform, prisoner releases, the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons, and people with links to paramilitaries entering the new administration.
Mr Trimble, clearly delighted with the result, said he hoped it was the end of an era, "the era of misrule, called direct rule". After the five-hour meeting, he was adamant that the party would not split.
Six UUP MPs voted against the agreement and four - Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, Mr William Ross, Mr William Thompson and the Rev Martin Smyth - urged council members to vote against it. Mr Donaldson said he had conscientious objections to some aspects of the document. Before a final vote, Mr Ross and Mr Smyth tabled an amendment effectively rejecting the agreement. It was defeated by 515 to 238.
Those MPs backing Mr Trimble were Mr Ken Maginnis, who returned from a foreign holiday for the meeting, Mr John Taylor and Mr Cecil Walker. Mr Jim Nicholson, an MEP, backed the agreement, as did negotiators Mr Reg Empey and Mr Dermot Nesbitt.
The result will not mean the end of the No campaign within the UUP. Mr Ross, MP for East Londonderry, and Mr Thompson, MP for West Tyrone, said they would continue opposing the deal.
The prospect of UUP members opposed to the deal standing in the Assembly elections in June was also opened up, and Mr John Taylor, deputy leader, said the party would be "very careful in its selection procedures". Mr Ross later pointed out that constituency associations selected candidates and that this rule could not be changed.
He said that "like Mr Churchill in 1940" he did not recognise defeat, and he would not resign from the party. "It could very well be that there will be unionists running in the elections who would share much of my view," Mr Ross said.
Mr William Thompson said he was disappointed and surprised at the number of Yes votes. He would go back to his constituency association, but even if he lost its support he would not resign his Westminster seat.
"I am not going to quietly go away. I believe that Ulster is my country and I believe the welfare of my country is greater than any political party," he said. He did not rule out sharing a platform with the DUP in opposing the agreement.
Mr Trimble said he expected everyone in the party to work for a Yes vote: "I expect to see all those in the party who expressed their views today to rally around the decision the party has taken. We share the concerns of those who said No. I invite them to continue the fight to remedy the defects that are here and we expect them to assist us in doing so."
The UUP leader said that what people did in the polling booth was a matter for their own conscience, but that what they did as a member of the party was a matter for the party.
Emphasising the concerns still held by unionists, Mr Trimble said he appreciated efforts by Mr Blair to allay these, but said they were not yet fully resolved. "We are moving forward into the next phase determined to ensure that the position is properly addressed with regard to policing and decommissioning, that we are sure that people who have been involved in terrorism cannot move into the heart of the administration without making it absolutely clear that they renounce violence," he added.
Mr Trimble also called on people in the Republic to support the agreement, saying that if there were not a strong Yes vote, it would be interpreted as a "sneaking regard for the men of violence". He said he believed President Clinton should not visit Belfast before the referendum. In an ITV interview yesterday, Mr Trimble said he believed the referendum would need to be carried by at least a 60 per cent majority. Delegates entering the Europa Hotel in Belfast were met by two opposing factions of loyalists, who shouted insults at each other across police barriers. Supporters of the Ulster Democratic Party urged council members to back the agreement, while the other faction, led by the dissident Orangeman, Mr Joel Patton, and the loyalist campaigner, Ms Pauline Gilmore, accused Mr Trimble of a sell-out.
Senator Mitchell welcomed the council result and said he was now more confident of the agreement being approved. He urged Sinn Fein to back the pact and said those opposed to it had not offered "any feasible or constructive alternative".
Mr Tony Blair, speaking from Saudi Arabia, said he was delighted with the result, which underscored "the courage and determination of David Trimble" and the party leadership. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, said the meeting's outcome was "a very positive development" and the agreement had now passed "another important test on the way to securing the approval it deserves".
The Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, said the vote sent a strong signal that the agreement was fair. She said Mr Trimble "has always represented unionism's case in an articulate and determined way".
In a statement issued on Saturday, Dr Mowlam also confirmed that Mr Tony Blair had spoken by telephone to Mr Gerry Adams, and that she had met Mr Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness last week. The Sinn Fein leaders raised issues of equality, Irish language, policing and prisoners. Dr Mowlam said the policy of transferring prisoners from Britain would continue.
The DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said that if Saturday's vote was reflected in the referendum by Ulster Unionist Party supporters, the UUP No vote added to those of the DUP and the UK Unionists would amount to 56 per cent of unionists.