Northern Ireland Conservatives | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chairman | Paul Leeman |
| Founded | 1989; 36 years ago (1989) |
| Headquarters | Scottish Provident Building, 7 Donegall Square West, Belfast, BT1 6JH |
| Youth wing | Young Conservatives |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Centre-right[1] |
| National affiliation | Conservative Party |
| European affiliation | European Conservatives and Reformists |
| International affiliation | International Democrat Union |
| Colours | Blue |
| House of Commons (NI Seats) | 0 / 18 |
| House of Lords | 1 / 825 |
| NI Assembly | 0 / 90 |
| Local government[2] | 0 / 461 |
| Website | |
| niconservatives | |
TheNorthern Ireland Conservatives are theNorthern Irish branch of theConservative Party in theUnited Kingdom. The Conservatives are the only political party to field candidates in bothGreat Britain and Northern Ireland, and typically contests only a fraction of Northern Irish seats in elections. The party won 0.03% of the vote in the2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election and 0.1% of the vote in the2024 United Kingdom General election in Northern Ireland.[3]
From 2009 to 2012, the party was in anelectoral alliance with theUlster Unionist Party (UUP), whereby the two parties fielded joint candidates for the2009 European Parliament election and2010 UK general election under the banner of "Ulster Conservatives and Unionists - New Force".[4]
The Conservative Party was first represented inIreland in the form of theIrish Conservative Party, which operated across the island. The Irish Conservatives became part of theIrish Unionist Alliance (IUA) in 1891. By this stage, the Conservatives' electoral base was largely restricted to Ulster and Dublin. The IUA's Members of Parliament took the Conservative Partywhip at Westminster, but the organisation retained a level of independence. Following the establishment of theIrish Free State in 1922, the IUA dissolved.[5] Its successor in Northern Ireland was theUlster Unionist Party (UUP).
From 1922, the Conservative Party maintained formal links with the UUP, its members taking the Conservative whip in theParliament of the United Kingdom, much like the then-independentUnionist Party of Scotland, which integrated into the party in England and Wales in the 1960s. This relationship broke down in 1972, following Unionist opposition to the proposedSunningdale Agreement, when all but one of the UUP MPs resigned the Conservative whip. The sole exception,Stratton Mills, left the UUP and continued to take the whip for a further year, before joining theAlliance Party of Northern Ireland. Another UUP MP,Robin Chichester-Clark, became Minister of State for Employment in theConservative government from April 1972 to February 1974.
The Conservative Party did not organise in Northern Ireland until the late 1980s, when three Unionist members ofNorth Down Borough Council, includingGeorge Green, defected to the party. The party doubled its representation there in thelocal government elections of 1989,becoming the largest party on the council. An Independent Conservative also won a seat on Lisburn Borough council,[6][7] although he joined the UUP before the1993 local elections. In the1989 European Elections the Conservative candidate polled 4.8% and was just 2,000 first preference votes behind the Alliance Party candidate.
Subsequently, the Conservatives were boosted by a number of other defectors. Former UUPAssembly membersDorothy Dunlop andBilly Bleakes defected inBelfast andLisburn respectively, whileRobert Mitchell, a former Stormont MP, defected inColeraine. Mary Ardill, wife of prominent former Stormont MPAustin Ardill, joined in Carrick; Gary Haggan defected from theDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP) inLarne, and independent unionist and former DUP politicianBilly Dickson in Belfast.Lloyd Hall-Thompson, another retired former UUP Stormont politician, became chair of the local Lagan Valley branch.[8]
The1992 general election saw the Conservatives stand in Northern Ireland for the first time. Laurence Kennedy came closest to winning a seat inNorth Down, finishing second behindJames Kilfedder and gaining 32% of the vote.[9]
The Conservatives have for some time maintained a close relationship with the UUP. The former UUP leader andFirst Minister,David Trimble was elevated to theHouse of Lords on losing his Commons seat. Shortly after standing down from theNorthern Ireland Assembly in 2007, he took the Conservative whip. On doing so he made it clear that he would not be campaigning on behalf of the Northern Ireland Conservatives in opposition to his former party.[10]
In July 2008,David Cameron andSir Reg Empey announced a working group to develop a partnership with the UUP.[11] This was implemented in 2009, forming the "Ulster Conservatives and Unionists" for certain electoral purposes, though the Vice Chairman of Conservatives NI, Jeffrey Peel, resigned from the Joint Committee created by both parties.[12] Also,Lady Sylvia Hermon, the UUP MP forNorth Down, resigned the UUP whip in March 2010 in protest at the tie-up.[13]
The two parties stood as theUlster Conservatives and Unionists - New Force at the2009 European Parliament election and2010 UK General Election.
On 14 June 2012, the Conservatives in Northern Ireland were relaunched as NI Conservatives.[14] The party is now autonomous on devolved matters, although it remains a full part of the national Conservative and Unionist Party. The party had a councillor on Larne Council, Dr Brian Dunn.[15] Dunn was first elected as a UUP candidate in 2001, and was last elected as an independent before joining the Conservatives.[16] He did not stand for re-election in 2014 for health reasons. The party nominated Mark Brotherston as its candidate in theEuropean Parliament elections in 2014,[17] but he failed to be elected, coming last with 0.7% of first preference votes.
The party stood in 16 out of the 18 Northern Ireland constituencies at the2015 general election,[18] although most of its candidates were from outside Northern Ireland.[19] Although the Conservative Party won a majority of seats UK-wide, the party received only 1.3% of the vote in Northern Ireland (9,055 votes) and failed to win any seats.
The party regained a council seat when former UUPColeraine ex-Mayor andCauseway Coast and Glens councillor David Harding joined the party.[20]
They stood 12 candidates in 11 of the 18 constituencies in the2016 Assembly elections. They won no seats, with candidates obtaining between 0.1% and 2.1% of the first preference votes. They stood one candidate each in 13 of the 18 constituencies in the2017 Assembly elections, but won no seats. The Northern Ireland Conservatives stood candidates in 7 of the 18 constituencies in the2017 general election. They won a total of 3,895 votes and no seats.[21]
The party nominated Amandeep Singh Bhogal as its candidate for the2019 European Parliament election, but he was not elected, coming last with 662 first preference votes (0.12%).[22]
| # | Leader | Term start | Term end |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Irwin Armstrong | 2012 | 2014 |
| 2 | Harry Cullen | 2014 | 2016 |
| 3 | Alan Dunlop | 2016 | 2019 |
| 4 | Neil Johnston | 2019 | 2020 |
| 5 | Alan Dunlop | 2020 | 2021 |
| 6 | Matthew Robinson | 2021 | 2023 |
| 7 | Paul Leeman | 2023 | incumbent |
As of the NI Conservatives AGM in June 2024, the members of the Executive Council are as follows:[23]
Officers as of 2023 include;
Constituency Representatives are also situated within the structure of the party with representatives sitting on the federation council.
The party in Northern Ireland was largely opposed to theGood Friday Agreement, in contrast to the national leadership who were in favour.[24]
The Northern Ireland Conservatives have a low support base, attracting 0.5% of the poll (3,500 votes) in the2007 Assembly election. As of 2019[update], they have no elected representatives in theNorthern Ireland Assembly, Local Government orParliament.
The party's best performance came in the1992 general election, when party candidates polled 44,608 votes across Northern Ireland: 5.7% of the total. Its best performance came in theNorth Down constituency, where the local party chairman, Laurence Kennedy, came second, 5,000 votes behind the sitting MPJames Kilfedder.
Subsequently, the party declined rapidly. In the 1993 council elections, the party lost five council seats, being reduced to six councillors across Northern Ireland. In North Down, the party's support more than halved, from 25% in 1989 to 11% in 1993, although they narrowly managed to win a seat in all four North Down electoral areas. Laurence Kennedy quit Northern Irish politics a few months later, while the party's councillors in Lisburn and Carrick left the party to sit as Independent Unionists. In1997 they were reduced to two council seats in North Down. Both councillors retired before the 2001 council elections and the party failed to defend one of its seats in2001 with the other lost, leaving them without elected representation in Northern Ireland.
In the 2024 general election, the party gained a total of 553 votes across NI; this was down from their 2019 election share.[3][25]
For results of other NI parties which were affiliated historically with the Conservatives, see the following pages:
| Election | House of Commons | Votes | Vote % | Seats | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 51st | 44,608 | 5.7%(in NI) 41.9%(in UK) | 0 / 17 | Conservative Party |
| 1997 | 52nd | 9,858 | 1.2%(in NI) 30.7%(in UK) | 0 / 18 | Labour Party |
| 2001 | 53rd | 2,422 | 0.3%(in NI) 31.7%(in UK) | 0 / 18 | Labour Party |
| 2005 | 54th | 2,718 | 0.4%(in NI) 32.4%(in UK) | 0 / 18 | Labour Party |
| 2010 | 55th | 102,631 (UCU-NF) | 15.2%(in NI) 36.1%(in UK) | 0 / 18 | Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition |
| 2015 | 56th | 9,055 | 1.3%(in NI) 36.9%(in UK) | 0 / 18 | Conservative Party |
| 2017 | 57th | 3,895 | 0.5%(in NI) 42.3%(in UK) | 0 / 18 | Conservative Party-DUP agreement |
| 2019 | 58th | 5,433 | 0.7%(in NI) 43.6%(in UK) | 0 / 18 | Conservative Party |
| 2024 | 59th | 553 | 0.1%(in NI) 23.7%(in UK) | 0 / 18 | Labour Party |
| Election | Legisture | Votes | Share of votes | Seats | Note(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Northern Ireland Forum | 3,595 | 0.48 | 0 / 110 | |
| 1998 | Northern Ireland Assembly | 1,835 | 0.23 | 0 / 108 | |
| 2003 | Northern Ireland Assembly | 1,604 | 0.20 | 0 / 108 | |
| 2007 | Northern Ireland Assembly | 3,457 | 0.50 | 0 / 108 | |
| 2016 | Northern Ireland Assembly | 2,554 | 0.40 | 0 / 108 | |
| 2017 | Northern Ireland Assembly | 2,399 | 0.30 | 0 / 90 | |
| 2022 | Northern Ireland Assembly | 254 | 0.03 | 0 / 90 |
| Election | First Preference Vote | Vote % | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 5,204 | 0.8% | 6 / 565 |
| 1993 | 9,438 | 1.0% | 6 / 582 |
| 1997 | 2,634 | 0.4% | 3 / 575 |
| 2001 | 1,985 | 0.3% | 0 / 582 |
| 2005 | 1,164 | 0.2% | 0 / 582 |
| 2011 | 1,321 | 0.2% | 0 / 583 |
| 2014 | 2,527 | 0.4% | 0 / 462 |
| 2019 | 1,364 | 0.2% | 0 / 462 |
| 2023 | 438 | 0.1% | 0 / 462 |
| Election | First Preference Vote | Vote % | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 25,789 | 4.8% | 0 / 3 |
| 1994 | 5,583 | 1.0% | 0 / 3 |
| 2009 (UCUNF) | 82,892 | 17.0% | 1 / 3 |
| 2014 | 4,144 | 0.7% | 0 / 3 |
| 2019 | 662 | 0.1% | 0 / 3 |
