UK Unionist Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Robert McCartney |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Dissolved | 2008 |
| Headquarters | Bangor, Northern Ireland |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Centre-right toright-wing |
| Colours | Red, white and blue |
TheUK Unionist Party (UKUP) was a smallunionist[1]political party in Northern Ireland from 1995 to 2008 that opposed theGood Friday Agreement. It was nominally formed byRobert McCartney, formerly of theUlster Unionist Party, to contest the1995 North Down by-election and then further constituted to contest the 1996 elections for theNorthern Ireland Forum. McCartney had previously contested the1987 general election as an independent using the labelReal Unionist.
In contrast to other unionist parties, the UK Unionist Party was an integrationist party which believed that Northern Ireland should be governed from London with no regionalhome rule government and parliament. The UKUP was outspoken in its opposition to theRepublic of Ireland having any participative role in thegovernance of Northern Ireland.
It was also highly critical of theBritish Labour government ofTony Blair agreeing toSinn Féin's participation in theNorthern Ireland Executive prior to theProvisional IRA fully disarming. The party also opposed the re-organising ofpolicing in Northern Ireland, which saw theRoyal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) being replaced by thePolice Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
The party secured a particular coup in 1996 when it was joined byConor Cruise O'Brien, a former government minister in the Republic of Ireland. O'Brien's hostility to militantIrish republicanism was well-known, and the adherence of such a prominent supporter from the Republic helped reinforce the UKUP's claims to be a non-sectarian party.
McCartney and O'Brien, along withCedric Wilson, won seats on the 1996 Forum. The UKUP (and theDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP)) refused to accept US SenatorGeorge Mitchell as chairman of the multi-party talks and tried to obstruct his work. In July 1996, the UKUP withdrew from the multi-party talks in protest at the way in which theDrumcree conflict was handled, but later re-joined them. When Sinn Féin entered the talks in September 1997, the UKUP again left them in protest, along with the DUP.
At the1997 general election, McCartney was re-elected as the Member of Parliament forNorth Down. The party opposed the April 1998Belfast Agreement and campaigned against the establishment of aNorthern Ireland Assembly, in which they were unsuccessful. It did contest theelection for the Assembly, however, and won five seats.
During 1998, the party suffered a significant amount of internal turmoil. O'Brien published an article in which he called for unionists to consider and embrace the idea of aUnited Ireland (to challenge the growth in popularity of Sinn Féin) – an idea that was anathema to most in the UKUP. He subsequently resigned from the party. In December the party split over the issue of Sinn Féin taking up its seats in the power-sharing executive without prior Provisional Irish Republican Army decommissioning of weapons. McCartney proposed that if this should happen, the five UKUP members should resign their seats in protest, but this was opposed by the other assembly members. At a party meeting at which the other four were absent, McCartney censured his Assembly colleagues over this split. The two sides both argued that they had the support of the grassroots members of the party. On 5 January 1999, all four left the UKUP to form theNorthern Ireland Unionist Party (NIUP), leaving McCartney as the sole UKUP representative in the assembly.
At the2001 general election, McCartney lost his seat in theHouse of Commons to theUlster Unionist Party, which in addition to putting considerable resources into taking the seat, benefited from the withdrawal of theAlliance Party of Northern Ireland due to McCartney's opposition to the Good Friday Agreement. In the2003 Assembly election, he was only narrowly re-elected to the Assembly. The party suffered a substantial decline in the election, holding only one seat. The NIUP also lost all of its seats.
In 2005, the UKUP did not contest any seats inthe Westminster election. Inthe local elections, its two members ofNorth Down Borough Council lost their seats.
In the2007 Assembly election, the UKUP fielded candidates in thirteen of Northern Ireland's eighteen constituencies, but failed to win any seats.[2] Leader McCartney personally stood in six constituencies and former DUP MLAGeorge Ennis also stood on the UKUP ticket. The party stood on aplatform opposing plans by the DUP to enter into devolved government with Sinn Féin after the election and on other issues including rates, water charges and education. The UKUP was seen as the main channel for DUP members disaffected with plans to share power with Sinn Féin.[citation needed]
Following McCartney's defeat inNorth Down in the 2007 Assembly elections, the UKUP was left without elected representatives at any level. McCartney announced his retirement from politics following the loss of his assembly seat in North Down toBrian Wilson of theGreen Party.[citation needed] As of September 2008, the UKUP is no longer listed as a registered party in the Northern Ireland Register of Political Parties maintained by the UK Electoral Commission.[3]
| Election | Seats won | ± | Votes | % | ± |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 1 / 18 |  1 | 12,817 | 1.6% | 1.6% |
| 2001 | 0 / 18 |  1 | 13,509 | 1.7% | 0.1% |
| Election | Seats won | ± | First Pref votes | % | ± |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 3 / 110 | 3 | 27,774 | 3.7% | 3.7% |
| Election | Seats won | ± | First Pref votes | % | ± |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 5 / 108 | 2 | 36,541 | 4.5% | 0.8% |
| 2003 | 1 / 108 | 4 | 5,700 | 0.8% | 3.7% |
| 2007 | 0 / 108 | 1 | 10,452 | 1.5% | 0.7% |
| Election | Seats won | ± | First Pref votes | % | ± |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 0 / 87 |  | 20,283 | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| Election | Seats won | ± | First Pref votes | % | ± |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 4 / 575 | 4 | 2,945 | 0.5% | 0.5% |
| 2001 | 2 / 582 | 2 | 4,763 | 0.6% | 0.1% |
| 2005 | 0 / 582 | 2 | 734 | 0.1% | 0.6% |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
