THE normally sedate atmosphere of the multi-party talks at Stormont was disrupted yesterday by an outbreak of pre-election hostilities between Mr John Taylor, deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, and Mr Robert McCartney, leader of the smaller UK Unionist Party.
Mr McCartney told a press conference that "the present Ulster Unionist leadership" was equivocal on the Union with Britain and on cross-Border institutions. The UUP quickly convened a press conference, where Mr Taylor hit back that Mr McCartney, having presented himself initially as a new unionist", had turned into a "political poodle" of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
Mr McCartney said many pro-Union people felt the UUP leadership could not be entirely trusted. Both Mr Trimble and Mr Taylor were refusing "to spell out clearly to the pro-Union people before the election what exactly they, as a party, intend to do after the election has taken place".
Citing an editorial in a British Sunday newspaper which said the UUP leadership felt some form of constitutional deal was inevitable in Northern Ireland, Mr McCartney said: "If the above is indeed their policy then they must tell the pro-Union people before the election what sort of constitutional deal they have in mind."
His party colleague, Mr Cedric Wilson, said that in addition to the secret Hume-Adams document, there was now a "Trimble-Hume document" on decommissioning and other issues but the UUP had refused to let their fellow unionists see it.
After Mr McCartney's statement, reporters were advised there would be a response from Mr Taylor. The UUP deputy leader was at his most scornful.
He said this was "yet another divisive attack" by the North Down MP. "Mr McCartney, of course, is a very eloquent person but when it comes to politics, he is very much a political juvenile."
This "scaremongering" by Mr McCartney was disgraceful "and it's an insult to the intelligence of the electorate in North Down".
He said Mr McCartney's statement was "totally incorrect and misleading". It was "particularly irritating" for Mr McCartney to suggest that the UUP would negotiate the Union and agree to cross-Border institutions with executive power.
He said "in no way" would the UUP agree to cross-Border institutions with executive power "which would lead, of course, to a united Ireland in time".
Mr Taylor said he had never seen the editorial referred to by his opponent. "When you find politicians who simply grasp at straws, such as an editorial in the Sunday Telegraph, as the basis of their political philosophy, they are people who have very little behind them politically."
Mr Reg Empey of the UUP said it was a pity Mr McCartney's ability was being channelled into a "personal vendetta" against the UUP. The UUP had been discussing a document on decommissioning with the SDLP and the Alliance Party but key issues remained unresolved. Far from hiding the document, they had offered to brief the other parties in the talks about it.
The UUP came in for criticism from another quarter later in the day when the DUP East Belfast MP, Mr Peter Robinson, said he was "disappointed" to hear that the UUP was proposing to run a candidate against him in the general election. Responding to a Belfast Telegraph report that the UUP was likely to field Mr Empey, Mr Robinson said in a statement: "I hope that, even at this late stage, the UUP will reconsider the folly of their intended action."
He added that he was "confident that the unionist voters of East Belfast will once more reject the vote-splitters and return me as their member".