The Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2025 | |
| Chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party | |
| Assumed office 1 March 2025 | |
| Leader | Mike Nesbitt |
| Preceded by | Jill Macauley |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| Assumed office 16 August 2024 Life peerage | |
| Member of the Legislative Assembly forFermanagh and South Tyrone | |
| In office 5 May 2022 – 27 September 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Rosemary Barton |
| Succeeded by | Diana Armstrong |
| In office 26 November 2003 – 27 June 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Sam Foster |
| Succeeded by | Neil Somerville |
| Member of Parliament forFermanagh and South Tyrone | |
| In office 8 May 2015 – 3 May 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Michelle Gildernew |
| Succeeded by | Michelle Gildernew |
| Chair of theCommittee for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs | |
| In office 6 February 2024 – 27 September 2024 | |
| Deputy | Declan McAleer |
| Preceded by | Declan McAleer (2022) |
| Succeeded by | Robbie Butler |
| Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party | |
| In office 22 September 2010 – 31 March 2012 | |
| Deputy | |
| Preceded by | Reg Empey |
| Succeeded by | Mike Nesbitt |
| Member ofFermanagh District Council forErne North | |
| In office 11 June 2001 – 9 May 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Caldwell McClaughry |
| Succeeded by | Rosemary Barton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Thomas Beatty Elliott (1963-12-11)11 December 1963 (age 61) County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland |
| Political party | Ulster Unionist Party |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | Enniskillen College of Agriculture |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch/service | British Army |
| Unit | |
| Battles/wars | The Troubles |
Thomas Beatty Elliott, Baron Elliott of Ballinamallard (born 11 December 1963), is a Northern Irish unionist politician and farmer serving as theChairman of the Ulster Unionist Party since March 2025. He was the leader of theUlster Unionist Party (UUP) from 2010 to 2012,[1] and was amember of the Northern Ireland Assembly forFermanagh and South Tyrone from 2022 until 2024, having previously served from 2003 to 2015. Elliott wasMember of Parliament (MP) forFermanagh and South Tyrone from 2015 to 2017 and was appointed to theHouse of Lords in 2024.
Elliott was a soldier in the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) from 1982 to 1992, and its successor theRoyal Irish Regiment from 1992 to 1999.[2] He backed a Leave vote in the 2016Brexit referendum.[2]
Elliott was born on 11 December 1963 to John and Noreen Elliott, and received his primary and high school education in his nativeBallinamallard inCounty Fermanagh. He earned a college certificate in agriculture from theEnniskillen College of Agriculture.[3][4]
 | Thisbiography of a living personrelies on asingle source. You can help by adding reliable sources to this article. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourcedmust be removed immediately.(January 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Elliott has been an activist in the Ballinamallard WardUlster Unionist Party (UUP) committee for many years and is chairman of that committee. He has also been Honorary Secretary of theFermanagh Divisional Unionist Association since 1998 and was chairman of the internal Ulster Unionist ad hoc Review Group for its duration.[4]
In November 2003 he was elected as a member of theNorthern Ireland Assembly representingFermanagh and South Tyrone, a position to which he was re-elected in March 2007 and May 2011. In this role he served as Ulster Unionist Assembly spokesperson on Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Elliott was selected as the UUP candidate forFermanagh and South Tyrone UK Parliament constituency in the2005 general election and came in third behind theSinn Féin andDUP candidates. The UUP share of the vote fell from 34% in 2001 to 18% in 2005.
He was reselected for the2010 general election, but stood down in favour of independent Unionist candidateRodney Connor. With the DUP, TUV, UKIP and the Conservatives not contesting the seat.
In June 2010, Elliott announced his intention to run in the2010 Ulster Unionist Party leadership election.[5] He was elected although not without some controversy. It emerged shortly before the leadership election that a quarter of the UUP membership came fromFermanagh and South Tyrone, a disproportionately high figure.[6]The Phoenix, an Irish political magazine, described Elliott as a "blast from the past" and that his election signified "a significant shift to the right" by the UUP.[citation needed]
The political editor ofBBC Northern Ireland assessed that Elliott "slipped on a number of banana skins, most of his own making" and that "his charm did not transmit well over the airwaves."[7]
When Elliott took over the leadership of the UUP in 2010, the party had recently received 102,361 votes at the May general election, which amounted to 15.2% of the vote.[8] At the2011 Assembly election, which was Elliott's first election as party leader, the UUP only received 87,531 votes which amounted to 13.2% of the vote and resulted in the party losing two of its MLAs.[9] On the same day in 2011 the UUP also lost 16 of its Council seats.[10]
In March 2012, he announced that he would step down as party leader.[11]
When asked about his reasoning for standing down, he said that "some people have not given [him] a fair opportunity at developing and progressing many initiatives", going on to say that some of the hostility began immediately after he was selected as leader. He also accused some party members of making his job more difficult by briefing journalists.[12]
His resignation triggered the2012 Ulster Unionist Party leadership election, withMike Nesbitt ultimately being chosen to succeed Elliott.[13][14]
Elliott was selected as the UUP candidate forFermanagh and South Tyrone at the2015 general election. He successfully won back the seat for the party, defeating the incumbent MP,Michelle Gildernew ofSinn Féin, with 46.4 per cent of votes cast and a majority of 530.[15] Elliott's win was one of two victories for theUlster Unionist Party at the election and returned the UUP to the Commons for the first time in five years.
In the run-up to the2017 general election, Elliott stated that the UUP was open to an electoral pact with theDemocratic Unionist Party,[16] but no such pact was agreed. He lost his seat to Gildernew at the election.[17]
Elliott again contested Fermanagh and South Tyrone at the2019 general election, coming only 57 votes short of retaking the seat, with 43.3% of votes cast.[18]
Elliott was one of two UUP candidates for Fermanagh and South Tyrone at the2022 Assembly election. He was elected on the second count, with 5,442 first-preference votes (10.2%). Elliott's election came at the expense of his running mate, the incumbent MLA,Rosemary Barton.
Elliott serves as the Ulster Unionist Party's agriculture spokesperson.[19] In this role, he has raised concerns about the rise of rural crime in Northern Ireland and outlined that the UUP is "committed to challenging serious and organised crimes."[20]
In August 2023, Elliott met withDame Brenda King,Attorney General for Northern Ireland, to express concerns at the perceived imbalance inTroubles legacy cases being directed forinquests.[21]
Elliott was nominated for alife peerage in the2024 Dissolution Honours.[22][23][24] He was createdBaron Elliott of Ballinamallard, of Ballinamallard in the County of Fermanagh, on 16 August 2024.[25]
In 2010 when Elliott was campaigning to be party leader he stated publicly that he wouldn't attendgay pride parades orGaelic Athletic Association matches,[26] and these comments were interpreted as a move by him to appeal to more socially conservative elements in his party and a rebuke to his opponent Basil McCrea.[27] Elliott later met with some gay rights groups and GAA figures in Northern Ireland.[28][29]
After he was elected in the2011 Assembly election, in his victory speech inOmagh Elliott referred to theIrish tricolour as a "flag of a foreign nation". When the audience started heckling him, he went on to describe nationalist supporters holding Irish flags as "the scum of Sinn Féin".[30][31] Although initially refusing to retract his comment[32] he later issued an apology "to all those good nationalists, republicans, even Sinn Fein voters who felt offended by it."[33]
In August 2012, Elliott opposed money being spent on public inquests into people killed by the British Army andloyalist paramilitaries duringthe Troubles. He urged relatives of those killed by the IRA—whom he called "the real victims"—to band together to "choke the system up" and stop such inquests happening.[34] He later clarified his remarks saying "At no stage did I suggest or infer that anyone killed in the Troubles, who was not murdered by the IRA, were 'not real victims'".[35]
In February 2016, Elliott was criticised when he provided a statement to a court on behalf of a convicted benefit cheat. The judge in the case said he received a letter from a "senior politician" that spoke "glowingly" of the convicted man's work in the voluntary sector.[36] Elliott denied it was a character reference. That same month, he was criticised by a judge for writing a testimonial for a man convicted for driving while disqualified.[37] Although not naming Elliott in court he said he "crossed the line of the independence of the court" and "trespassed on the sentencing process."[38]
Elliott settled a defamation case with Attorney GeneralJohn Larkin by issuing a statement through his barrister and donating an undisclosed sum of money to charity.[39] Under the terms of the settlement the following statement was read out by Elliott's senior counsel:
"On 20 April 2016, during the course of a live debate on the Stephen Nolan BBC Radio Ulster show, Mr Elliott made a number of statements which may have been taken to imply that the attorney general, John Larkin, had failed to discharge his professional duties impartially and with fairness. Mr Elliott wishes to confirm that he did not intend to impugn the integrity of Mr Larkin or for any such inferences to be taken from his statements. Mr Elliott regrets any embarrassment which this may have caused Mr Larkin."[40]
Elliott married his wife Anne in 1989. They have two children, a son and a daughter, who were adopted at the age of two.[3][41]
Elliott is a member of theOrange Order within Fermanagh, he has served as County Grand Master. He is also a member of theRoyal Black Preceptory and the Kesh branch of theApprentice Boys of Derry (ABOD).[42]
| Northern Ireland Assembly | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of the Legislative Assembly forFermanagh and South Tyrone 2003–2015 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of the Legislative Assembly forFermanagh and South Tyrone 2022–present | Incumbent |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Leader of theUlster Unionist Party 2010–2012 | Succeeded by |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forFermanagh and South Tyrone 2015–2017 | Succeeded by |
| Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Gentlemen Baron Elliott of Ballinamallard | Followed by |
