A senior pro-Belfast Agreement Ulster Unionist has endorsed a key argument of Mr Jeffrey Donaldson ahead of Monday's Ulster Unionist Council showdown between the Lagan Valley MP and Mr David Trimble.
Lord Kilclooney - the former Strangford MP Mr John Taylor - said yesterday he would oppose the Independent Monitoring Body proposed in the Joint Declaration because it would give Dublin a role in the Northern Assembly.
With his intervention, Lord Kilclooney is supporting a central plank of Mr Donaldson's UUC motion calling for a rejection of the declaration. Mr Donaldson said last week that allowing the Irish Government one of the four places on the monitoring or sanctions body gives Dublin a say in Assembly affairs.
The effective move to Mr Donaldson's position by such a pro-Belfast Agreement Ulster Unionist as Lord Kilclooney puts extra pressure on Mr Trimble as he prepares for the UUC confrontation.
"This new agreement between the British and Irish governments breaches the Belfast Agreement and now gives Dublin a role in the future exclusion of parties and individuals from the Assembly. Dublin would now have its toe through the Assembly door," said Lord Kilclooney.
He added that the Government, through the sanctions body, could even influence the expulsion of Ulster Unionists from the Assembly if they were judged to be in default of their commitments under the Belfast Agreement.
"The UUP should now seriously consider this new role for Dublin. I, for one, could not approve it," said Lord Kilclooney.
Mr Trimble has so far endorsed the monitoring body because it could impose sanctions, up to expulsion, against Sinn Féin if the IRA was proved to be engaged in paramilitary activity.
He expressed frustration at Lord Kilclooney's and Mr Donaldson's view of the body. "It doesn't give a formal role to Dublin. The key to this is that for the first time the British government is taking on powers to exclude from the Executive," he told yesterday's Belfast Telegraph.
"That is something unionists have been asking for for years. It is perverse when you are on the verge of getting something you want to say you don't want it," added Mr Trimble.
The UUP leader is so far refusing to declare how he will meet Mr Donaldson's challenge at the UUC. He will shortly write to all 860 UUC delegates urging them to maintain faith with his leadership. Mr Donaldson is also writing to delegates seeking support for his motion.
Mr Trimble, in a statement yesterday, said that the British Defence Secretary Mr Geoff Hoon's assurances about the Royal Irish Regiment proved that the regiment was "not affected in any way by the Joint Declaration".
He would not make any direct comment about Mr Donaldson. "I have not commented on this matter since it began and I am sorry that other people haven't followed my example," said Mr Trimble.
Mr Donaldson welcomed Lord Kilclooney's comments.
