UUP to delay disciplinary moves against rebel MPs
The Ulster Unionist Party has decided to delay disciplinary action against the three dissident MPs who resigned the party whip at Westminster last week.
The UUP's party officers met last night and selected a disciplinary panel to decide what punitive action to take against Jeffrey Donaldson, David Burnside and Martin Smyth.
However, they decided that the panel should not meet for three weeks to allow for the possibility that mediation between the pro- and anti-agreement wings of the party could find a solution to the internal rift.
The three anti-agreement MPs who resigned the UUP whip did so in protest at the party's refusal to reject the recent Irish-British declaration on implementing the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
