Two rebel Ulster Unionist MPs have finally retaken the whip at Westminster, ending a tumultuous week for the party.
Mr David Burnside and the Rev Martin Smyth were told last night they could rejoin the parliamentary party, seven months after they, along with Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, quit to oppose the party position on the two governments' Joint Declaration. The move comes five days after Mr Donaldson and two other Assembly members defected to the DUP. Mr Donaldson resigned before Christmas.
Mr Burnside and Mr Smyth said last night they remained steadfast in their opposition to the policy of the Irish and British governments as contained in the Joint Declaration published last May. They quit the whip on June 23rd to be free to vote against the legislative aspects of the declaration as they came before the House of Commons.
Their return was welcomed by the UUP chairman, Mr James Cooper, who spoke after a meeting of the UUP officers' group at party headquarters in Belfast yesterday.
Mr Cooper said the move was a welcome step in the direction of healing the party's deep divisions and of helping to regain its place as the largest unionist party.
In a joint statement, Mr Burnside, the party's South Antrim MP and the Rev Smyth, who is also party president and MP for South Belfast, said: "We wish to make it clear that whilst we will endeavour to work for greater unity within the Ulster Unionist Party and further with the wider unionist family, we remain steadfastly opposed to the implementation of the Belfast and Irish Joint Declaration.
"We resigned the parliamentary whip with our former parliamentary colleague Jeffrey Donaldson so we would be free to vote against the legislative aspects of the Joint Declaration in September on the International Monitoring Commission which we believe will be toothless and ineffective and not capable of excluding Sinn Féin and its private army, the IRA. from executive government in Northern Ireland - if that ever was to occur in the future.We maintain that strongly held position."
Their decision to rejoin follows what one reliable unionist source called "a number of outreach meetings" involving senior members and Mr Burnside and Mr Smyth. "This problem has been worked on for a while," the source added.
The retaking of the party whip meets a demand placed upon the rebel MPs by the party's ruling body, the Ulster Unionist Council, last September.
That meeting, at which Mr Donaldson tried to force Mr David Trimble to change party policy, instead voted to urge the three MPs to retake the party whip and abide by its (the UUC's) decisions.
One unionist said the deep party split over the agreement since 1998 in general, and during the past seven months in particular, had not gone away. "But it does go some way to mending the fence," he said.
It is understood Mr Trimble will shortly begin a tour of the North's 18 constituencies to visit local UUP associations.
Mr Burnside's and Mr Smyth's move last night is the latest illustration that the section of the party which opposed the leadership position on the agreement, has been divided against itself.
Mr Donaldson and his two former colleagues who quit the party whip used to count on around 46 per cent of the vote at UUC meetings. However, this was not a unified group centred around Mr Donaldson. Some UUP sources draw comfort from the fact that only Ms Norah Beare and Ms Arlene Foster resigned along with Mr Donaldson and defected to the DUP.
With Mr Donaldson gone and Mr Burnside and Mr Smyth back in the fold, Mr Trimble was reported to be in an upbeat mood.