The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded as the Ulster Unionist Council in 1905,emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson,it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movement. Following the partition of Ireland,it was the governing party of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. It was supported by most unionist voters throughout the conflict known as the Troubles,during which time it was often referred to as the Official Unionist Party (OUP).
The Conservative Monday Club is a British political pressure group,aligned with the Conservative Party,though no longer endorsed by it. It also has links to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in Northern Ireland.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a unionist,loyalist,British nationalist and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley,who led the party for the next 37 years. It is currently led by Gavin Robinson,who initially stepped in as an interim after the resignation of Jeffrey Donaldson. It is the second largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly,and is the fifth-largest party in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The party has been described as centre-right to right-wing and socially conservative,being anti-abortion and opposing same-sex marriage. The DUP sees itself as defending Britishness and Ulster Protestant culture against Irish nationalism and republicanism. It is also Eurosceptic and supported Brexit.
The UK Unionist Party (UKUP) was a small unionist political party in Northern Ireland from 1995 to 2008 that opposed the Good Friday Agreement. It was nominally formed by Robert McCartney,formerly of the Ulster Unionist Party,to contest the 1995 North Down by-election and then further constituted to contest the 1996 elections for the Northern Ireland Forum. McCartney had previously contested the 1987 general election as an independent using the label Real Unionist.
Andrew James MacKay is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Stechford from 1977 to 1979,East Berkshire from 1983 to 1997 and for Bracknell in Berkshire from 1997 to 2010.
William Martin Smyth is a Northern Irish unionist clergyman-politician. An ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland,he was Grand Master of the Orange Order during much of the Troubles and served as the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Belfast South from 1982 to 2005. He was also a vice-president of the Conservative Monday Club.
Nigel Alexander Dodds,Baron Dodds of Duncairn,,is a Northern Irish unionist politician and barrister serving as Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in the House of Lords since 2021. He previously served as deputy leader of the DUP from 2008 to 2021 and leader of the DUP in the House of Commons from 2010 to 2019.
Catharine Letitia Hoey,Baroness Hoey,better known as Kate Hoey,is a Northern Irish politician and life peer who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Home Affairs from 1998 to 1999 and Minister for Sport from 1999 to 2001. During the 1970s Hoey was involved in radical far-left groups but by the end of the decade became involved with the Labour Party. Hoey remained a member of the Labour Party for several decades while she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Vauxhall from 1989 to 2019,but resigned from the party in 2020.
Laurence Anthony Robertson is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tewkesbury since 1997. A member of the Conservative Party,he chaired the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee for seven years,from 2010 to 2017.
William Ross is a Northern Irish unionist politician,serving as President of the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) since 2008. He served as the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Londonderry from February 1974 until 2001. He was one of the UUP members opposed to the Good Friday Agreement.
Jonathan Bryan Guinness,3rd Baron Moyne,is a British peer and businessman. A member of the Guinness family,he is the elder of the two sons of Bryan Guinness,2nd Baron Moyne,and his first wife Diana Mitford. Until his retirement,he was a merchant banker with Messrs Leopold Joseph.
Belfast North is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is John Finucane of Sinn Féin.
Thomas David Simpson is a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician in Northern Ireland,who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Upper Bann from 2005 to 2019. On 6 November 2019 Simpson announced that he would not be standing for re-election in the 2019 general election.
Reginald Norman Morgan Empey,Baron Empey,,best known as Reg Empey,is a Northern Irish politician who served as the acting First Minister of Northern Ireland in 2001. He was the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 2005 to 2010 and served as chairman of the party from 2012 to 2019. Empey was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Belfast from 1998 to 2011.
North West Hampshire is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Conservative Kit Malthouse,who served as Education Secretary in 2022.
Independent Unionist has been a label sometimes used by candidates in elections in the United Kingdom,indicating a support for British unionism.
The Northern Ireland Conservatives is a section of the United Kingdom's Conservative Party that operates in Northern Ireland. The Conservatives are the only major British party to field candidates within Northern Ireland and typically contests only a fraction of seats in elections. The party won 0.03% of the vote in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election and 0.7% of the vote in the 2019 United Kingdom General election in Northern Ireland.
Independent Conservative is a description which has been used in the United Kingdom,Canada,United States and elsewhere,to denote a political conservative who lacks a formal affiliation to the party of that name.
The Conservative–DUP agreement between the Conservative Party and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) followed the 2017 United Kingdom general election which resulted in a hung parliament. Negotiations between the two parties began on 9 June,the day after the election,and the final agreement was signed and published on 26 June 2017.
