Voicemail starts UUP row

In the process of phoning another UUP member, former MLA and current mayor of Coleraine, Norman Hillis, described Mr McClarty as "burnt out" and a "spent force". The conversation ended up being recorded on David McClarty's mobile phone.

The conversation took place after Mr McClarty had been de-selected by the East Londonderry UUP Constituency Association. Norman Hillis is the current head of the association. David McClarty last week announced he is to stand as an independent in the forthcoming Assembly polls.

Mr Hillis was talking on a land line to Coleraine councillor, David Harding, who had just been selected as an Assembly candidate along with Lesley Macaulay, in favour of Mr McClarty.

The row escalated when Mr Hillis stood by his statements and Mr McClarty pointed out that he had been re-elected at the last Assembly elections in 2007 and Mr Hillis had been voted out.

The telephone conversation took place after Mr McClarty had registered he had been "deeply hurt" by the de-selection. Mr Hillis had called Mr Harding on his land line, but during the conversation inadvertently pushed a button on his mobile which rang Mr McClarty's mobile and the conversation was recorded on his voice mail.

Mr McClarty said: "I felt it was a betrayal by someone with whom I had worked for many years at council level and then at the Assembly until he failed to make it in 2007. I was gutted when the constituency rejected me after my service at the Assembly, where I made it as Deputy speaker.

"For the constituency chairman to add insult to injury was the last straw. I decided at that stage to quit the party and am going independent. I have tremendous support in the constituency and have a willing band of workers lined up for my campaign."

However, Norman Hillis made no apologies for making the comments and said: "It's unfortunate that David has chosen to make a private conversation available to the press.

"I believe he is a spent force and I stand by the constituency's choice of David Harding and Lesley Macaulay. You just have to study the past three Assembly elections to discover his support has fallen by 45 per cent."

Mr McClarty received 5,108 forst preference votes in 1998, 4, 069 in 2003 (when Mr Hillis was elected with 2,292) and 2,785 in 2007, when Norman Hillis lost his seat.

Mr Hillis said: "He is portraying himself as a martyr and a victim, but he offered his name to the democratic process and failed to make it at the association meeting. We felt it was time for new faces. David McClarty's Assembly vote dropped like a stone and he was de-selected. These things happen-just as it happened to Harry Hamilton and George Savage in Upper Bann and Paula Bradshaw in Belfast South."

Mr McClarty added there was too much power vested in the UUP constituencies and not enough in the central party and "that's tearing the UUP apart in the face of too many local petty jealousies."

Mr Hillis responded: "The conversation happened in October, David discovered it on voice mail three weeks later and chose to reveal it to the Press just this week. He's milking it for all it's worth and I don't think he'll make the assembly this time. But, of course, that's up to the electorate of East Londonderry.

Mr McClarty said: "I'm going to win this seat."