DUP Ministers today challenged the whole of the Ulster Unionist ministerial team to quit their posts if leader Mr David Trimble carries out his threat to resign over arms decommissioning.
The DUP's East Derry MP Mr Gregory Campbell told theAssembly he would also stand down as Regional Development Minister - and his colleague Mr Maurice Morrow would resign as Social Development Minister - if Mr Trimble's entire team followed his lead and pulled out of the Executive on Sunday.
In a direct challenge to the First Minister's stance on the issue of IRA arms he said: "My party colleague Maurice Morrow and I have tendered a letter of resignation effective on the resignation of all the Ulster Unionist ministers."
Mr Trimble has threatened to stand down from the power sharing executive on July 1st if there is not sufficient IRA disarmament.
Mr Campbell told the Assembly his threat to resign was intended to "send the clearest possible signal that the current system does not command the support of the majority of unionists in Northern Ireland.
"We are committed to finding an accommodation which can also command the support of a majority of unionists in Northern Ireland.
"In pursuing this aim we will talk to anybody but we will not sit down and negotiate with those who are not committed to exclusively peaceful and democratic means.
"We shall not act in a way which would simply hand over government departments to those who support the Belfast Agreement but we will act in the best interests of all the people of Northern Ireland."
The DUP's move was dismissed by Mr Trimble who claimed the resignation letters they had lodged would have no effect.
He told Mr Campbell: "Two things stand out. First of all he [Gregory Campbell] is incompetent.
"He hasn't read the [Northern Ireland] Act. The letter he had lodged has no effect because a letter of resignation if he can read the Act should be sent to me and the Deputy First Minister. Sending it to the Speaker has no effect at all.
"Second, he is a coward. He is a political coward. If he had any courage he would go now and what is he going to do? He said that after I resign he might think about it."
The DUP was criticised bySDLP Finance Minister Mark Durkan who accused them of trying to pull off a "shadow stunt".
PA