THE UUP chief whip, the Rev Martin Smyth, admitted yesterday he had outlined his party's "concerns" about election procedures in the North at a meeting with the Conservative chief whip in Westminster ahead of Monday night's crucial vote.
While his party leader, Mr David Trimble, continued to express astonishment at allegations that a deal was attempted on elections, Mr Smyth defended his actions. He asked "Is it not within the remit of any political party to actually put forward what their views are on specific subjects?"
Mr Trimble, in radio and television interviews after the vote, maintained "We weren't in the business of making deals." He said on a BBC programme "I did not offer, nor did I authorise anyone to offer, a deal for a 12 month period in return for something done last night."
In a BBC radio interview, however, Mr Smyth said I put before the chief whip of the Conservative Party some of the concerns that we've had, especially when one considers that Northern Ireland which has already been used to STV proportional representation to break the unionist monolith is now being threatened with another form of election procedure to destroy the whole concept of Ulster, in my judgment."
Mr Smyth asked "Have I no rights in future, either publicly or privately, to try to argue the case for the best way that Northern Ireland should be treated as I've been arguing, for example, for a Grand Committee to look at the hospital issues ...?"
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, said he was certain that the UUP had made demands. He criticised Mr Trimble for asserting afterwards that he had voted the way he voted because he was "standing for morality and decency in government" (Dr Paisley's words). This would bring a lot of condemnation down on him, Dr Paisley said. "People are saying here in Northern Ireland that they shot themselves in the foot, and I think that's right," he said.
The Conservative MP, Mr Andrew Hunter, alleged in interviews that the UUP had offered a deal by which it would support the government for 12 months if the government met certain conditions, "and these were entirely unacceptable because the Prime Minister is not in the business of playing party politics with the search for peace in Northern Ireland."