 Later in the year, Oliver Napier of the Ulster Liberal Party and Bob Cooper, formerly of the Ulster Unionist Party, were appointed as joint Chairmen of its political committee.Napier and Cooper wished to establish a new political party, a position which was strongly opposed by Walker.A meeting of the NUM was held on 30 December 1969 to decide on the way forward, and a committee was elected to investigate the feasibility of launching a new party at Easter in 1970.