There was uproar at the conference when Mr Ken Maginnis MP challenged anti-agreement unionists to admit that more people were alive today because of the Belfast Agreement, and that this was a vindication of Mr David Trimble's policies.
"The overall death rate, despite the horror of the Omagh bomb, has been reduced in David Trimble's five years of leadership by 70 per cent. That is huge," Mr Maginnis said.
Turning to Mr Trimble's internal critics, he said: "Is it not strange that nobody wants to hear that more people are alive today because we are moving forward? Is it not shameful?"
Amidst widespread heckling and booing, Mr Maginnis continued: "Some people need people to die so they can lament. That is disgraceful."
Speaking after the debate, the anti-agreement MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, accused Mr Maginnis of insulting delegates.
"It was the most disgraceful speech a party conference has ever heard. People were appalled by Ken Maginnis.
"He was effectively saying that we don't have a right to criticise this process and to challenge Sinn Fein/IRA for not decommissioning. He made a disgraceful slur on the Ulster Unionist Party," Mr Donaldson said.
Other anti-agreement speakers during the debate were critical of Mr Maginnis. An East Londonderry delegate, Mr Tom Fleming, said: "I have tried in my lifetime to try to unite, and speeches like that do the opposite."
He expressed grave doubts about his leadership's current policies. He lived in the countryside where "a man's word is his bond" and he had assured other party members and friends that the UUP would not enter government with Sinn Fein without verifiable decommissioning.
He felt let down that this had not happened. He believed the British government had misled the UUP over the peace process.
Mr David McNarry accused the Provisional IRA and Sinn Fein of holding back progress by refusing to hand over "the quartermaster's keys". "We need to apply the brakes," he added.
Referring to Mr Maginnis's speech, Mr Kenny Allen said nobody wanted to return to a time when the death rate was higher.
However, using a reduction in the level of violence as a reason to support a political strategy was a suspect argument which insinuated that the UUP would be to blame for a return to violence.
Mr Allen noted that his party's leadership said it opposed violence and wanted decommissioning. But this would be just "hollow words" if action was not taken against Sinn Fein in government.
The loss of the South Antrim by-election was very significant. "In my view we must use sanctions against Sinn Fein if we are to remain a political force. Sadly, South Antrim is only a shadow of what is to come. We need decommissioning now if this government arrangement is to be viable," Mr Allen said.
Mr Jim Nicholson MEP said no other political party and no other leader had done more to help the peace process than the UUP and David Trimble.
He understood many delegates felt angry that their party appeared to be receiving so little in return. However, he did not see any alternative to the leadership's policies.
A Fermanagh delegate, Mr Raymond Ferguson, said the Provisional IRA had ended its campaign not because the Belfast Agreement was a victory for republican principles but because the British army and RUC Special Branch had "ground the republican war machine to a halt".
There was no alternative to Mr Trimble's policies, he said. "What are we to go back to? It would be a huge disaster not just for this party but the country to try to replace this process with something no one can articulate."