Members of the Loyalist Communities Council (from left) Jim Wilson, Winston Irvine, David Campbell and Jackie McDonald

The voting advice emerged from the Loyalist Communities Council, an umbrella group for illegal loyalist paramilitary groups which was formed two and a half years ago with the stated aim of moving such groups away from criminality.

The LCC’s chairman, former Ulster Unionist chairman David Campbell, who himself has no paramilitary history, issued a statement which implicitly referred to Alliance and other non-unionist parties, but did not name them.

The LCC urged “all loyalist and unionist voters to overcome their apathy and vote for all the unionist candidates in Thursday’s European election”.

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Mr Campbell said: “The apathy and low turn-out that we experienced in the recent local government elections clearly helped the enemies of unionism.

“This should serve as a wake-up call to all unionist voters. Irrespective of each individual’s view on Brexit the pan-nationalist front will be counting every non-unionist vote as a vote for a united Ireland. This must not be allowed to succeed.

“Every loyalist and unionist is advised to vote for the first preference candidate of their choice, and then to transfer their other preferences to the other unionist candidates. This will ensure that Northern Ireland continues to send two unionist MEPs to Europe for as long as the UK retains its membership of the EU.

“A vote or even a lower preference vote for any non-unionist will be counted as a vote against the Union by our collective enemies.”

In the recent council elections, several UUP members blamed attempts to demonise Alliance for boosting that party’s vote at their expense.

Two years ago, after the LCC endorsed several DUP and UUP candidates, DUP chief whip Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said that his party did not accept such support from paramilitary organisations.