Ulster Unionist assembly member Peter Weir was tonight expelled from the party for defying instructions to back David Trimble's re-election as Northern Ireland First Minister.
A disciplinary hearing in Belfast suspended another dissident UUP assembly member Pauline Armitage after she too failed to toe the party line.
The pair had resisted efforts to back Mr Trimble's return as First Minister in the Stormont power-sharing executive after expressing scepticism at the IRA's recent disarmament move.
PA