https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/uda-and-uvf-leaders-refuse-to-endorse-donaldsons-deal-only-jackie-mcdonald-backs-dup-return-to-stormont/a1022350108.html
The Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) has rejected the deal that saw the DUP return to Stormont.
At a stormy meeting in Belfast on Friday, a sizeable majority of UDA and UVF leaders said they could not endorse Sir Jeffrey Donaldson’s agreement amid ongoing concerns over the Northern Ireland protocol.
Only South Belfast UDA chief Jackie McDonald came out in support of the DUP leader.
Representatives from the UVF brigade staff, Red Hand Commando and UDA ‘brigades’ in east Belfast, west Belfast and north Antrim all refused to give their approval.
They told the LCC meeting, chaired by former UUP chairman David Campbell, that continuing checks on goods coming into Northern Ireland from other parts of the UK meant “the Irish Sea border still remains”.
Sunday Life approached Mr Campbell for a comment, but he failed to respond.
McDonald, who is a key supporter of Sir Jeffrey, is understood to have taken the LCC rejection badly.
But sources close to the veteran loyalist have backed his belief that a DUP return to Stormont is “best for Northern Ireland” and helps secure the union.
One told Sunday Life: “The other members of the LCC need to see the bigger picture here, like Jackie does, and understand the DUP being in the Assembly secures Northern Ireland’s position within the UK rather than weakening it.
“Other LCC members have had their heads turned by what they have heard hardliners like Jim Allister and Jamie Bryson saying in the media.”
It was initially suggested that the LCC was supportive of the DUP’s Stormont return, with Jackie McDonald understood to have briefed Sir Jeffrey about this directly.
However, this was not reflective of the viewpoint held by the UVF, Red Hand Commando and other UDA units. After a series of meetings throughout February the groups came together under the LCC banner last Friday to reject the deal.
Our UDA source added: “Jackie is so p****d off by what happened that he is unlikely to participate in any future LCC meetings.”
Other loyalists present at last Friday’s LCC summit included UVF leaders John ‘Bunter’ Graham and Harry Stockman, and UDA chiefs Matt Kincaid and Jimmy Birch.
A key indicator that the UVF was unhappy with the DUP’s Stormont return came on February 22 when its PUP political wing publicly opposed the move.
Party leader Russell Watton said: “The command paper does not safeguard the union and is a reworking of the Windsor Framework. The Irish Sea border still remains and European law will still apply.
“Finally, there is nothing in the command paper that removes our fear of an all-Ireland economy. A legal opinion expressed by the former Attorney General John Larkin KC points to how the deal fails to measure up.”
Sunday Life understands that the LCC has decided not to issue a statement on the latest developments until it meets with the DUP over how the party plans to further eradicate the economic Irish Sea border.
The loyalist umbrella group’s opposition to the DUP’s return to Stormont is a significant blow to Sir Jeffrey Donaldson who is having to endure constant criticism of the deal by his own party MPs as well as peers at Westminster.
Orange Order leaders are growing increasingly concerned and putting pressure on Grand Secretary Mervyn Gibson, who endorsed the deal in a personal capacity, to withdraw his support.
TUV leader Jim Allister and loyalist activist Jamie Bryson have also organised a series of anti-protocol rallies, the first of which is in Ballyclare, Co Antrim, on Friday, at which the DUP will be heavily criticised.
by Ah_here_like
28 comments
So big Jeff will come out and inform us all he won’t be pressured or swayed by terrorists, right???
The DUP have a real shot for progression here if they came out and distanced themselves from knuckle draggers like that, but that would be far too sensible.
We are witnessing loyalist organisations losing their influence in real-time.
Arousing.
It’s crazy that loyalist terrorists are even meeting publicly and giving their opinion on this, could you imagine this happening in Britain?
I must have missed the UDA and UVF manifestos at the last elections.
Who asked them?
If they are known as leaders of terrorist organisations why are they not in jail?
The absolute state of this headline.
Imagine this was a republican organisation with “Only the Real IRA commander backing O’Neill”. The outrage machines would be pumping out at 1690% capacity 24/7. But no absolute silence from those usual quarters who harp on about SFIRA etc.
Presented like it’s a comment from the Women’s Institute or the British Society of Baking.
They’re not terrorists, they’re just drug gangs.
They want to be treated like the rest of the UK? Then lock them up for being members of a terrorist organisation.
So run as a representative and seek and alternative??!. It’s a democracy, at least in name.
But I thought it was those other ones that were the political wing of something 🤔
The hash dealer on my street announced last night and that he s happy to see the assembly back . The guy who robbed my sister’s bike hasn’t said either way yet
Realistically.. what are they going to do about it?
Jesus, they sure took their time, must have been some hangover from when they went to their local to *“discuss it”* a month ago. A ferocious intellectual discussion over harp and coke with much depth and critical thinking I’m sure.
Wild that so much detail from this meeting can just be openly published, as if it was a public meeting of minds. Only it’s not, it’s the leadership of multiple terrorist gangs discussing strategy. And the PSNI do absolutely fuck all.
Didn’t the NIRA have a meeting a few years back with all their leadership and we had the PSNI and NCA bugging the entire place before making a wide sweep of arrests that lead to the jailing of about a dozen leaders, essentially wiping out the entire command of the organization?
Where’s that happened here? Or do the PSNI sanction these orgs and allow them to carry out their objectives because they’ve mates in the DUP and TUV? Why’s there been no arrests when we have fking journalists of all people with seemingly every detail from the meeting going so far as having the individual opinions of those in attendance? It’s like they sat down there themselves with a notepad taking it all in.
Fuck them
Random catholic taxi men beware!
What do the Kinahans think about it, since we’re asking the opinion of drug dealers.
Fuck them they’re going at the brits this time. A collection of limp dicks
If loyalist paramilitaries instruct the DUP to collapse Stormont we need to go to joint rule immediately. Fuck this shit being held to ransom by a bunch of racketeering, drug dealing scumbags.
Illegal paramilitaries? Holding conference? Deciding on what they will accept elected politicians decisions? Completely normal.
So.
Fuck….
Imagine referring to themselves as a “brigade”. Twats.
Imagine the outrage if Dee Fennel or someone from his manky mob were brought on TV/radio/papers to be asked their views on Brexit/protocol/Stormount etc. You would never hear the end of it
Despite the fact they’ve repeatedly tried to normalise it, the Belfast Telegraph should be ashamed to publish loyalist paramilitary gossip. Classic unionist exceptionalism.
Who cares?
I wonder: is the relationship between the Sunday Life and the Belfast Telegraph more similar to that of the LCC and the UVF/UDA… or that of the DUP and the LCC?
Or perhaps it’s more like the UDA and their Britintel handlers.
Are the UDF and the UDA not terrorists?
In fairness, I see why they don’t want anyone checking what’s in the lorries coming into the ports.