Suspending UUP three ‘unlawful’

THE Ulster Unionist Party unlawfully suspended three dissident MPs from the party for rebelling against the leadership, the High Court in Belfast ruled yesterday.

A High Court judge ruled that an Ulster Unionist disciplinary committee was not properly constituted to deal with complaints against three MPs, Jeffrey Donaldson, the Rev Martin Smyth and David Burnside.

The three MPs had resigned the party whip at Westminster in protest at the Ulster Unionist Council’s backing for the party leadership’s position on the British and Irish Governments’ joint declaration on the future of the Good Friday Agreement.

The High Court ruled the participation of one member of the committee, Barry Fitzsimons, could be questioned because he was involved in a motion of no confidence against Mr Donaldson in his Lagan Valley constituency.

But the High Court ruled that the participation of Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble in a meeting considering what action should be taken against the three MPs was proper.

Emerging from the court, Mr Donaldson declared: “Justice has been done.”

Mr Donaldson, who was joined in the court by Mr Smith, appealed to Mr Trimble to abandon disciplinary action against him and his colleagues. The Lagan Valley MP said: “I would say to Mr Trimble: draw back from the brink. If you want a way forward, this is not it. Suspension is not the way forward.

“It is time for Mr Trimble to start listening to what we have to say instead of resorting to a rule book that he cannot even interpret and which this court has determined to have been an unlawful decision.”

Former Ulster Unionist Assembly member Peter Weir, who is now a member of the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists, was among those in the public gallery.

Representing the party hierarchy in the court were former Stormont environment minister Dermot Nesbitt and the UUP’s chairman James Cooper.

The chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party James Cooper said the party leadership would now engage in a “mature reflection’ on the judgment by Lord Justice Girvan.

However, he insisted that the judge had “clearly upheld the decision of the (party) officers to make a reference to the disciplinary tribunal.

“What he found at question was the terms of reference.”

Mr Cooper noted that Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson had called on the party hierarchy to “pull back from the brink. That message has been put by the leadership to Jeffrey and his colleagues for the past two weeks.

“We would be delighted if Jeffrey Donaldson would come back and talk about the Ulster Unionist Council ruling.”

Mr Cooper said it was “highly regrettable” that Ulster Unionists were fighting each other in the courts and picking through the party constitution and the rule book in a legal action.

“I want to make it clear that we do not want to be here, we do not want to have to use disciplinary procedures, but we cannot continue to have an assault going on from within.”