Sir Reg said that the annoucement of the First Minister's departure came as no surprise, following recent controversies.

"The plotters were in open rebellion," he said. "It has been building - I think the appointment of Ian Paisley Junior to the Policing Board was the last straw."

Sir Reg told the News Letter that the appointment reinforced the impression that the Paisleys were "completely out of touch".

The East Belfast MLA had harsh words for Dr Paisley's legacy.

"I think that when we come to look back on all of this, the Paisley era over the last 40 years has been a catastrophe for unionism quite honestly," Sir Reg said. "He has divided every single unionist institution and every single Protestant institution."

Sir Reg added: "In everything he had to have his own outfit. At the end of the day I think his best plan should have been to concentrate on his considerable skills and abilities in the proclamation of the gospel rather than contaminating the message with politics."

The UUP leader also had fiercely words for the political establishment in Whitehall

"Yet another unionist scalp is being claimed by the British Government in that (Dr Paisley), like other unionist leaders before him, was used by the Government - whether Brian Faulkner, David Trimble now himself - they can now prepare to cast him aside, having done the job they wanted him to do."

But Sir Reg's strongest words were for some sections of the DUP.

"Sordid"

"Perhaps the most sordid part of the whole thing has been the utter selfishness of his colleagues, not one of whom would have been heard tell of politically without Ian Paisley, and they rebelled because they saw the spoils of office threatened by embarrassments that he and his son were causing."

He said that the Ulster Unionist success in the Dromore council by-election had been the trigger for yesterday's annoucement.

"Never in her wildest dreams would Carol Black (the winning UUP candidate) have believed that she would have been the person who provoked this."

Sir Reg concluded: "As Ulster Unionist leader I take out of all this the message that as the party of the union that has served people well for well over 100 years, I believe that people should seriously consider whether it has been wise to follow these different elements that advocated a message of defiance only subsequently to abandon those principles and those who supported them."