By Barry McCaffrey

THE Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), which suffered heavy defeats in the recent Northern Ireland elections, will undergo an overhaul if party leader Sir Reg Empey has his way.

Empey is emphatic that the party needs new ideas and new members if it is to survive in the North’s new political landscape.

At a weekend of the party’s Ulster Unionist Council, Empey said the party must begin a “crusade” to save itself.

“This is not a cosmetic exercise in tilting at windmills. Rather, it is a crusade to ensure that the UUP has the political, organizational, campaigning, electoral, financial, presentational and media tools to rebuild and move on,” he said.

Former party leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner David Trimble recently joined the British Conservative Party, and Empey has been fielding his own share of criticism from within the party.

Empey will become the minister for employment and learning in the new government next month, but the party’s chief negotiator has criticized the move, saying that Empey should focus on the future of the UUP instead.

“Friends, I wish we were meeting in happier circumstances.

I believe that we fought a good, gaffe-free campaign; built around a policy agenda that was relevant, costed and forward thinking,” Empey said last weekend.

“I wish, too, that we were meeting without the shadow of media stories about further splits hanging over us. There never needed to be a public squabble about who would lead the charge for reform, for it is clear from the resolution that it was a matter for review by the executive committee and this council.”