UUP 'needs new policy' to survive

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Attempts by Sir Reg Empey to restructure the Ulster Unionist Party will have no effect in any future election, according to a former UUP MP.

Willie Ross, who lost his seat in 2001, said the DUP had "stolen the clothes" of the Ulster Unionists.

Sir Reg, the party leader, has ordered a review of how the party operates.

Mr Ross, who is no longer a party member, said its only chance of survival was to come up with new and distinct policies.

"I was on the committee which looked at the rules before," he told the BBC's Politics Programme on Sunday.

"I think that they have actually been revamped since that (and) they are now going to revamp them again.

"All the rule changes in the world won't make a blind bit of difference. The ordinary voter doesn't understand that, doesn't care about that.

"All that they are interested in is what is this party going to do for me, for my community, for my constitutional position?"Sir Reg Empey addressed delegates on Saturday

The former East Londonderry MP was speaking a day after Sir Reg ordered the six-month review at the party's annual general meeting.

Sir Reg told delegates that no other party would tolerate its own members "destroying it from within".

He said the UUP needed new blood and fresh thinking if it was to prosper in future elections.

Sir Reg said there was a need for the UUP to work with parties of the centre to provide an alternative to what he described as "the DUP/Sinn Fein axis".

Earlier this week, it emerged that there had been an internal row over whether Sir Reg should take a ministerial post or concentrate on rebuilding the party.