A new Loyalist Communities Council is to be formed aimed at addressing internal criminality and to “widen the democratic process” among its members.

It is to be made up of two members each from the Ulster Volunteer Force, the Ulster Defence Association and the Red Hand Commando terror groups.

The loyalist umbrella group will be chaired by David Campbell, a former chief of staff to one-time Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble.

The groups have come together to form the LCC following lengthy behind the scenes talks with Tony Blair’s former chief of staff Jonathan Powell, former senior PSNI officer Peter Sheridan and UKIP’s David McNarry.

The new group has been formed exactly 21 years after the UVF, its off shoot the Red Hand Commando and the UDA/UFF declared its ceasefire under the then Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) which later disbanded.

Mr Powell told a press conference at the Park Avenue Hotel in east Belfast today that it had been wrong to leave loyalism in the political wilderness.

In a statement announcing its formation, the LCC had a warning for those within its organisations still involved in criminality.

“We eschew all violence and criminality,” said the LCC statement.