The Ulster Unionist Party has begun a "crusade" to restore party fortunes after a disastrous Assembly election and following reports of internal disaffection.
UUP leader Sir Reg Empey told his ruling Ulster Unionist Council in Belfast on Saturday that the party must reform radically. He also said this process will involve restructuring and introducing "fresh blood and fresh thinking".
"This is not a cosmetic exercise in tilting at windmills. Rather, it is a crusade to ensure that the UUP has the political, organisational, campaigning, electoral, financial, presentational and media tools to rebuild and move on," he said.
Mr Empey delivered his address at the end of a week in which it was revealed that Mr Alan McFarland, a senior Ulster Unionist MLA, and close ally of the party's only MP Lady Sylvia Hermon, had turned down the post of health minister in the Northern Executive after a dispute with the UUP leader.
It was also a week in which former UUP leader and Nobel laureate Lord David Trimble joined the Conservative Party.
Mr McFarland argued his party leader - rather than taking the employment and learning portfolio in the new Northern Executive designate, as he has done - should have concentrated his efforts on revitalising the UUP after its poor performance in the Assembly election, where it won only 18 seats.
Mr Empey referred to the election results and the dispute with Mr McFarland at the beginning of his speech at the annual general meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council, in which he was formally returned as leader without opposition.
"Friends, I wish we were meeting in happier circumstances. I believe that we fought a good, gaffe-free campaign; built around a policy agenda that was relevant, costed and forward thinking," he said. "I wish, too, that we were meeting without the shadow of media stories about further splits hanging over us.
"There never needed to be a public squabble about who would lead the charge for reform, for it is clear from the resolution that it was a matter for review by the executive committee [of the UUP] and this council.
"The irony, of course, is that we need the reform to stop this sort of negative story hitting the media in the first place!
"Have we learned nothing whatsoever in the past decade? Does anyone in this party actually believe that this sort of media coverage helps us? If you have a gripe, then knock my door and talk to me," he added.
Announcing a comprehensive six-month review programme of party operations he said the North was a better, safer, less violent place because of the efforts of the UUP through the peace process.
But he warned: "Tempting as it is to keep banging on that the DUP are merely a bunch of hypocrites who have adopted our policies . . . such an attitude doesn't really get us anywhere. The political process has moved on. The electorate has moved on. Circumstances have changed."
"We must reach out to that growing number of people who do not classify themselves as either unionist or nationalist . . . We must persuade them that we can represent their beliefs and we can only do that by persuading them of the merits of our cause and our vision for Northern Ireland," he said.
