A friend and colleague of the late David Ervine has rubbished sacked Sunday Independent columnist Eoghan Harris's claim that he was close to the former Progressive Unionist Party leader.
Mr Harris told RTÉ that he was a "close friend of David Ervine and a friend of Gusty Spence and I have very strong views about the Protestant and loyalist working class, and I felt they had been very alienated".
Mr Ervine, a former UVF member who helped bring about the 1994 loyalist ceasefire, died in 2007.
However, Dawn Purvis, who succeeded Mr Ervine as PUP leader, told The Irish News Mr Harris was not close to Mr Ervine.
"I knew David Ervine and spent many years with him," she said.
Read More: Eoghan Harris linked to second account which targeted female media figures from the north
"I would not be of the same opinion as Eoghan Harris was at all."
Ms Purvis tweeted earlier yesterday that Mr Harris's claims of friendship were "complete fantasy".
Mr Harris's contract with the Sunday Independent was terminated last week after it emerged he was involved in running an anonymous Twitter account.
A fierce critic of Sinn Féin, Mr Harris said he was among six people involved in running the Barbara J Pym account.
Twitter has suspended the account along with several others.
The @barbarapym2 account, set up in February 2020, targeted several high profile people including Belfast film-maker Seán Murray; Derry-born journalist Aoife Moore; Belfast Telegraph journalist Allison Morris; Professor Colin Harvey, of Queen's University Belfast; Co Derry citizenship campaigner Emma De Souza; journalist and author Paul Larkin and economist and broadcaster David McWilliams.
Several people, including Mr Murray and Mr Larkin, have announced they are taking legal action following the revelations.
