The Lord Empey | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Official portrait, 2025 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First Minister of Northern Ireland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Acting | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 1 July 2001 – 6 November 2001 Serving with Seamus Mallon | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Appointed by | David Trimble | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | David Trimble | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | David Trimble | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Reginald Norman Morgan Empey (1947-10-26)26 October 1947 (age 78) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Ulster Unionist Party (Before 1973; 1984–2011; 2011-) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other political affiliations | Ulster Vanguard (1973–1975) United Ulster Unionist Party (1975–1984) Conservatives(2011) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Stella Empey (died 2023) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Queen's University Belfast | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Profession | Businessman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reginald Norman Morgan Empey, Baron Empey,OBE (born 26 October 1947), best known asReg Empey, is a Northern Irish politician who served as the actingFirst Minister of Northern Ireland in 2001. He was theleader of theUlster Unionist Party (UUP) from2005 to2010 and served as chairman of the party from 2012 to 2019. Empey was aMember of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) forEast Belfast from1998 to2011 and has been alife peer in theHouse of Lords since 2011.
Reg Empey was born in WestBelfast on 26 October 1947. His family were retailers, and his uncle was Stormont Ulster Unionist MPJoseph Morgan;[1] another uncle was Ben Horan, who was a Belfast councillor for over 20 years.[2] Empey attended Hillcrest Preparatory School, Belfast, andThe Royal School, Armagh, before graduating with an economics degree fromQueen's University of Belfast, where his contemporaries included the future MPBernadette Devlin. After that he built up a business career, specifically in retailing. His Royal Avenue store, located opposite the British Army barracks, was destroyed in an explosion, and looted.[when?]
He first entered politics in the late 1960s when he joined theUlster Young Unionist Council. Along with other hardlineunionists, he left in protest at reforms and became an early member of theVanguard Progressive Unionist Party, serving as the party chairman in 1975 and being elected to the Constitutional Convention in the same year.[citation needed]
When Vanguard split during theNorthern Ireland Constitutional Convention, Empey joined the breakaway group which formed theUnited Ulster Unionist Party, serving as the party's deputy leader from 1977 until its dissolution in 1984.[citation needed]
Empey then rejoined theUlster Unionist Party (UUP). He was elected toBelfast City Council, serving asLord Mayor in 1989–1990 and 1993–1994.[3]
He was appointed anOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the1994 New Year Honours for services to local government.[4]
During this period Empey built up a political base inEast Belfast, but in 1995 he sought to become the Ulster Unionists' candidate for theNorth Down by-election. He was not selected by North Down party members, losing out toAlan McFarland.[5]
He was a senior Ulster Unionist negotiator for theGood Friday Agreement.[6]
Empey became increasingly prominent in the UUP and was often a member of its negotiating teams throughout the 1990s, the decade when he first became a party officer, and he became a key ally ofDavid Trimble, who became leader of the party in 1995. Trimble had been deputy leader of Vanguard in the years after the divide. In 1996, Empey was elected to theNorthern Ireland Forum for East Belfast and in 1998 and 2003 he was elected to theNorthern Ireland Assembly.[citation needed]
When theNorthern Ireland Executive was formed in 1999, Empey became Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, holding the portfolio throughout the entirety of the Executive's existence. In June 2001 Trimble temporarily resigned asFirst Minister of Northern Ireland and appointed Empey to fulfil the functions of the office for the interim period until disagreements between the parties had been resolved. He undertook the role until November of that year. In 1999, Empey wasknighted byQueen Elizabeth II.[7]
He was theMinister for Employment and Learning from 2007 to 2010. He called for the Treasury to compensate investors in the collapsed mutual societyPresbyterian Mutual which the Treasury rejected.[8]
In October 2011, he welcomed the news that the National Transitional Council of Libya had agreed compensate victims of IRA bombings. He said the many shipments of arms sent to Ireland by Colonel Gaddafi for IRA use, were 'tantamount to an act of war against the United Kingdom.'[9]
In 2005, Trimble resigned as leader following a disastrous showing by the UUP in the2005 general election. Empey stood in thecontest to succeed him and on 24 June 2005, was elected. In a reversal of fortunes, his main opponent was Alan McFarland, to whom he had lost the by-election nomination ten years earlier.[5]
On 15 May 2010, Empey announced that he was to stand down in late 2010 as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.[10] In August 2010, he confirmed that he would resign as leader in September 2010.[11][12][13]
On 19 November 2010, it was announced that Empey would be created alife peer and will sit as aConservative in theHouse of Lords.[14] On 15 January 2011, he was createdBaron Empey, of Shandon in the City and County Borough ofBelfast,[15] and took his seat supported byLord Trimble andLord Rogan.[14]
Empey voted in favour of triggeringArticle 50 in 2017, to begin the United Kingdom's withdrawal from theEuropean Union.[16] He has since stated that "Brexit has been a disaster for unionism."[17]
On 30 October 2024, Empey called onDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP) leaderGavin Robinson to apologise on behalf of his party after it emerged that the DUP had secret meetings withSinn Féin in the mid-2000s whenever the DUP had a policy of not speaking to Sinn Féin.[18]
On 30 June 2001David Trimble temporarily resigned asFirst Minister of Northern Ireland at midnight and appointed Empey to fulfil the functions of the office for the interim period until disagreements between the parties over decommissioning had been resolved. Trimble had resigned in protest against the IRA failure to redeem its pledge to put its weapons "completely and verifiably beyond use".[19] Empey was one of Trimble's strongest supporters.[20]
As alluded to above, Empey's premiership was marked by the continuing impasse arising from theProvisional Irish Republican Army (IRA)'s refusal of Trimble's demands that itdecommission its arms, as per the commitments all parties had signed up to in section 7 pt. 3 (page 25)[21] of the 1998Good Friday Agreement.[22]
On 7 August 2001, the IRA agreed on a method of destroying its arsenal.Tony Blair,Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time, described the breakthrough as "significant" and "historic".General John de Chastelain of Canada, chairman of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, said the proposals had been accepted by the panel as ones that would "put IRA arms completely and verifiably beyond use." The Ulster Unionists had said they would no longer take part in theNorthern Ireland Assembly if the IRA did not begin disarming. The announcement came after meetings between the commission and a representative of the IRA.[23]
Empey and the UUP's two other ministers in theNorthern Ireland Executive resigned from their ministerial positions on 18 October 2001, putting a seven day deadline on solving the crisis before being renominated on 24 October 2001.
On 2 November 2001, he proposed a motion ‘That the Rt Hon David Trimble, MP, MLA be First Minister and that MrMark Durkan, MLA be Deputy First Minister of the Assembly’, but it was defeated after two members of Trimble's party voted against him. Therefore Empey continued as First Minister until Trimble was finally elected on 6 November in another motion proposed by Empey. The motion succeeded after threeAlliance MLAs changed theirdesignation temporarily from 'Other' to 'Unionist'.[24][25]
In July 2025,declassified confidential government files revealed that if Trimble resigned as UUP leader in February 2002 there was support for Empey becoming the permanent First Minister withJeffrey Donaldson having responsibility for party leadership and organisation.[26]
Reg and Stella Empey have two children. Empey is a member of theOrange Order, his lodge being Eldon LOL 7, in the Belfast district. Lady Empey was appointed MBE in the2007 New Year Honours for services to the community in Northern Ireland and died in 2023.[27]
Empey first stood for election in the 1975 elections to the Constitutional Convention, standing as a candidate in Belfast East for theVanguard Unionist Progressive Party he received 4657 first preference votes he was elected. In the 1977 Local Government elections he received 981 first preference votes and was unsuccessful (he did not run in the 1981 Local Government Elections), and the1982 Assembly election he received 503 first preference votes.[citation needed]
In the1985 Local Government election, he was elected to Belfast City Council with 1117 first preference votes, this was reduced in the subsequent1989 local government election to 864.[citation needed]
In1993 he was elected having attained 1295 first preference votes, and was elected again in1997 with 2309 first preference votes. However this still left him behind his mainDUP rival in the Pottinger Electoral Area,Sammy Wilson.[28]
Empey stood in every election since 1998 to the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly until the 2011 election. He was first elected to the Assembly in 1998 polling 12.8% of the popular vote, in 2003, 20.9% of the popular vote, and in 2007, 14% of the popular vote. Empey also stood against DUP MP for East BelfastPeter Robinson in the 2005 Westminster election polling 30.1% of the vote but failing to get elected.[29]
In the2010 general election, Empey contested theSouth Antrim seat, but was defeated by the incumbentWilliam McCrea for the DUP.
| Civic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Vacant Title last held by Dixie Gilmore | Deputy Lord Mayor of Belfast 1988–1989 | Vacant Title next held by Eric Smyth |
| Preceded by | Lord Mayor of Belfast 1989–1990 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lord Mayor of Belfast 1993–1994 | Succeeded by |
| Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention | ||
| New convention | Member forEast Belfast 1975–1976 | Convention dissolved |
| Northern Ireland Forum | ||
| New forum | Member forEast Belfast 1996–1998 | Forum dissolved |
| Northern Ireland Assembly | ||
| New assembly | Member of the Legislative Assembly forBelfast East 1998–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| New office | Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment 1998–2002 | Vacant Office suspended Title next held by Nigel Dodds |
| Vacant Office suspended Title last held by Carmel Hanna | Minister for Employment and Learning 2007–2010 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party 2005–2010 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party 2012–2019 | Succeeded by |
| Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Gentlemen Baron Empey | Followed by |
