“didn’t get the impression that it was a legal exercise being sought..”

This BBC report notes that Northern Ireland Finance minister, the DUP’s Peter Robinson, has been giving evidence today at the Billy Wright Inquiry about what Wright told him at his constituency office in the summer of 1996, and at a later meeting at the Maze prison. Wright was later shot and killed in the prison by INLA inmates. The Belfast Telegraph has more details here

The East Belfast MP said Wright came to see him at his constituency office in the summer of 1996 and claimed his name had come up in a July meeting at Downing Street involving two PUP members and two members of the UDA-aligned Ulster Democratic Party (UDP).

“He indicated that he had been informed by someone who was present at the meeting that reference was made to the Prime Minister about the difficulties he was causing and something needed to be done about it. He needed to be dealt with,” Mr Robinson said.

Shortly after the Downing Street meeting, the Combined Loyalist Military Command, encompassing the UVF and UDA, threatened Wright with “summary justice” if he did not leave Northern Ireland immediately.

And from the same report

The inquiry later heard that Wright was told David Ervine was the loyalist politician who had raised concerns about the LVF leader with Tony Blair [then-PM John Major] in Downing Street during the July 22, 1996 meeting.

Mr Robinson told the inquiry that from his conversation with Wright he “didn’t get the impression that it was a legal exercise being sought”.

Pete Baker