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UUP votes to adopt fightback plan IRA must disappear - UUP's Empey
(about 2 hours later)
Ulster Unionist members have backed wide-ranging reforms proposed in a review headed by leader Sir Reg Empey. The IRA should disband and disappear, Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey has told his party conference.
The vote was held at an extraordinary general meeting in Belfast ahead of their annual conference on Saturday. Sir Reg also said that the public spats within his party were now over and he was tired of Ian Paisley claiming credit for Ulster Unionist achievement.
"I accept the IRA has changed in the last few years," he said.
"But rather than believing that it has gone away entirely, I suspect that it may actually be in a form of suspended animation - a hibernation."
The UUP leader told the party's annual conference on Saturday: "But the 'potential' of the IRA still exists and it will exist for so long as the IRA itself exists.
"The IRA needs to disappear altogether, disband, dismantle all of itsstructures.
"That, and that alone, would be the clearest possible sign to unionism that we really are living in a new political dispensation."
'Disappointing elections'
Sir Reg also told delegates there should be a business tax regime which would enable Northern Ireland to compete internationally.
"This isn't just about Corporation Tax alone, but fuel duties relative to the Republic," he said.
Earlier, Ulster Unionist members backed wide-ranging reforms proposed in a review headed by Sir Reg.
The vote was held at an extraordinary general meeting in Belfast ahead of the annual conference.
They overwhelmingly adopted the plans designed to help the party fight back following a series of disappointing elections and internal splits.They overwhelmingly adopted the plans designed to help the party fight back following a series of disappointing elections and internal splits.
The reforms mean all members, and not just those on the ruling council, can vote in leadership elections.The reforms mean all members, and not just those on the ruling council, can vote in leadership elections.
The Ulster Unionist Council will also be open to all members instead of selected delegates.The Ulster Unionist Council will also be open to all members instead of selected delegates.
However, the selection of candidates will be more centralised, with less power for its 18 constituency associations.However, the selection of candidates will be more centralised, with less power for its 18 constituency associations.
In response to a chronic under-representation of women and young people, both groups will in future be represented among the party officers.In response to a chronic under-representation of women and young people, both groups will in future be represented among the party officers.
Speaking ahead of his address to the conference, Sir Reg said it would bring about a party "that is serious about itself and its future".
In another break with tradition, delegates will also be addressed by SDLP Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie, who was invited long before the current controversy over her decision to cut funding to the UDA-linked Conflict Transformation Initiative.