Two Ulster Unionist Party MPs who resigned the party whip last summer in protest at Mr David Trimble's pro-Belfast Agreement stance have resumed the whip, it has been announced.
A short statement issued this evening said: "The officers are pleased to announce that the Rev Martin Smyth MP and David Burnside MP have resumed the Westminster Parliamentary Whip in accordance with the Constitution and Rules of the Ulster Unionist Council."
Mr Burnside, MP for South Antrim and Rev Smyth, MP for South Belfast resigned the party whip on June 23rd along with Lagan Valley MP Mr Jeffrey Donaldson but the three remained members of the party. Their move was a direct challenge to the leadership of Mr David Trimble. Mr Donaldson has recently announced his defection to Dr Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party.
The three dissident MPs were threatened with disciplinary action if they failed to resume the party whip.
Their resignations came following Mr Trimble's support for the Joint Declaration by the British and Irish governments last July. That declaration proposed the repeal of the British government's power to suspend Northern Ireland's political institutions, moves towards giving power over policing to the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly and the establishment of an independent body to monitor the carrying out of commitments to end paramilitary activity, amongst other issues.
It came shortly after the British prime minister, Mr Tony Blair, announced the postponement of the Northern Ireland Assembly elections.
At the time they resigned, the three dissident MPs accused the party leadership of failing to achieve the twin objectives of devolution and decommissioning.
"The Assembly is prorogued, the elections cancelled and the decommissioning process has become a farce without a single paramilitary group co-operating with the Independent Commission. The Party is divided right down the middle," they said. They also said the governments' Joint Declaration was "packed with concessions" to Sinn Fein and the IRA and offered little prospect of delivering on stable devolution or credible decommissioning".