UUP returns to disciplinary debate
Ulster Unionist Party officers were today debating whether to pursue disciplinary action against three rebel MPs.
Party officers were due to gather at their headquarters in Belfast following last Saturday’s Ulster Unionist Council vote urging Jeffrey Donaldson, David Burnside and the Rev Martin Smyth to resume the UUP whip at Westminster.
The three MPs angered the party leadership in June when they resigned the whip in a protest over policy.
A bid by supporters of UUP leader David Trimble to suspend the MPs was overturned by a Belfast High Court judge because it did not follow party rules properly.
A second attempt to discipline the MPs was put on hold while the Ulster Unionist Council considered whether it would be wise to punish them.
A UUP source said he hoped the leadership would continue to keep the disciplinary action on pause.
He said; “It has been a torrid summer for our party and it has done nothing to help our reputation.
“I would suspect that many in the party would like to see the MPs given time to resume the whip at Westminster rather than to have disciplinary action continue.”
One of the MPs, David Burnside, indicated after Saturday’s vote that the trio would not resume the whip while legislation went through the House of Commons paving the way for a four-member commission which would monitor paramilitary ceasefires and the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.
Hopes have been rising since Saturday that the Irish and British governments and the pro-Agreement parties could break the deadlock in the peace process soon.
British Chief of Staff, Jonathan Powell, was in Belfast yesterday for talks with Sinn Féin leaders.
It was also confirmed that Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble met Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams who has also met in recent days Mr Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.
Nationalists have pressed the British government in recent days to hold elections for the Assembly in Northern Ireland this Autumn.
However, if that is to be achieved Unionists insist that there must be “acts of completion” from the IRA, ending paramilitary activity.
