The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist and conservative political party in Northern Ireland. Having gathered support in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland, during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the party governed 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). Between 1905 and 1972, its peers and MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, in effect functioning as the Northern Irish branch of the Conservative and Unionist Party. This arrangement came to an end in 1972 over disagreements over the Sunningdale Agreement. The two parties have remained institutionally separate ever since, with the exception of the 2009–2012 Ulster Conservatives and Unionists electoral alliance.
Castlereagh was a local government district with the status of borough in Northern Ireland. It merged with Lisburn City Council in May 2015 under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland to become Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council, with a small amount being transferred to Belfast City Council.
Belfast East is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is Gavin Robinson of the DUP.
Lisburn City Council was the local authority for an area partly in County Antrim and partly in County Down in Northern Ireland. As of May 2015 it was merged with Castlereagh Borough Council as part of the reform of local government in Northern Ireland to become Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council.
Reginald Norman Morgan Empey, Baron Empey,, best known as Reg Empey, is a Unionist politician from Northern Ireland, who was the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 2005 to 2010. He was the chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party from 2012 to 2019. Empey was also twice Lord Mayor of Belfast and was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Belfast from 1998 to 2011.
Naomi Rachel Long MLA is a politician in Northern Ireland, who has served as Minister of Justice in the Northern Ireland Executive since January 2020 and leader of the Alliance Party since 2016. She has served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Belfast East since 2020.
Michael McGimpsey is a former MLA who represented the people of South Belfast at Belfast City Council and the Northern Ireland Executive for twenty three years.
Jim Rodgers OBE is a politician from Northern Ireland who was previously the High Sheriff of Belfast, the judicial representative of the sovereign in Belfast. He is an elected Ulster Unionist Party Councillor and appointed Alderman at Belfast City Council.
Independent Unionist has been a label sometimes used by candidates in elections in the United Kingdom, indicating a support for British unionism.
The 2007 election to the Northern Ireland Assembly was held on Wednesday, 7 March 2007. It was the third election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. The election saw endorsement of the St Andrews Agreement and the two largest parties, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin, along with the Alliance Party, increase their support, with falls in support for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).
David McNarry is a UK Independence Party (UKIP) politician in Northern Ireland, who was the leader of UKIP Northern Ireland from 2012 to 2016. He stood for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in North Down in the 1982 Assembly elections but failed to be elected. He was first elected as a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Strangford as an Ulster Unionist member in 2003 and subsequently re-elected in 2007 and again in 2011, before parting company with the UUP in 2012 and joining UKIP. He is a former UUP chief whip and education spokesman.
Fred Cobain, MBE is a Democratic Unionist Party politician from Northern Ireland. He was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998 until 2011.
David McClarty was an Independent Unionist politician from Northern Ireland, who served as a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Londonderry from 1998 to his death in 2014.
Robert Coulter was a Northern Irish politician, a member of the Ulster Unionist Party and a prominent proponent of unionism.
Roy Hamilton Bradford was a Unionist politician in Northern Ireland and a government minister in both the Parliament of Northern Ireland and the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly.
The Northern Ireland Conservatives is a section of the United Kingdom's Conservative Party that operates in Northern Ireland. The party won 0.3% of the vote in the 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election and 0.7 of the vote in the 2019 United Kingdom General election in Northern Ireland.
The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded on 7 December 2007, from a split in the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Its first and current leader is Jim Allister who, until 2009, sat as an independent Member of the European Parliament, having been elected for the DUP in 2004. In the 2009 European elections Allister lost his seat when he stood as a TUV candidate. In June 2008, it was announced that former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MP William Ross had been made party president.
Andrew Allen is an Ulster Unionist Party politician in Northern Ireland and a former soldier in the British Army. He served in the War in Afghanistan in 2008. He is one of the more liberal members of the party, consistently voting in favour of same-sex marriage and abortion.
Robbie Butler is a Unionist politician from Northern Ireland, who has been the deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) since May 2021. He has been a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Lagan Valley (MLA) since May 2016. He was re-elected at the 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election.
John Stewart is a Northern Irish Unionist politician, and businessman. Since 2017, he has been an Ulster Unionist Party Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Antrim.
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