Ulster Popular Unionist Party | |
---|---|
Leader | James Kilfedder |
Chairman | William McIntyre |
Secretary | Valerie Kinghan |
Founded | 1980 |
Dissolved | 1995 |
Headquarters | Donaghadee |
Ideology | Unionism Pro-devolution |
Political position | Centre-right |
The Ulster Popular Unionist Party (UPUP) was a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1980 by James Kilfedder, independent Unionist Member of Parliament for North Down, who led the party until his death in 1995. For a brief period in 1980, it was known as the Ulster Progressive Unionist Party before it adopted the "Popular" name.
In the 1981 Northern Ireland local elections, the party took three seats on North Down Borough Council and two seats on Ards Borough Council. Two of these were in North Down 'Area B', where sitting councillor George Green, a former Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party member who had been elected to the 1975 Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention, had joined the party. [1] The other, Gladys McIntyre, was Mayor of Ards in 1985-86.
Kilfedder won a seat for the party in North Down at the 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly election. Only a minority of his votes transferred to his running mate, George Green, who missed out on taking a second seat by just six votes. Kilfedder was subsequently elected Speaker of the Assembly. [2]
Kilfedder held his seat in the UK Parliament at the 1983 general election with a large majority, [3] but fared less well when he stood in the 1984 European election, taking only 2.9% of the first preference votes. [4] A unionist pact enabled Kilfedder to easily win a by-election in 1986, when he joined the other unionist MPs in resigning in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement. A challenge from Bob McCartney, who stood as a "Real Unionist", led to a close election in 1987 that Kilfedder ultimately won. He then beat a Conservative Party opponent in 1992. [3]
The party was reduced to three councillors in 1985, and remained at this level until Kilfedder's death in 1995. George Green had defected to the Conservative Party before 1989 but the party compensated by gaining a seat in the Dundonald area of Castlereagh. Following Kilfedder's death, the three UPUP councillors went their separate ways, Valerie Kinghan to the newly formed UK Unionist Party. [5] Thomas Jeffers to the Democratic Unionist Party and Cecil Braniff setting up a short-lived independent DUP. No party member contested the North Down by-election resulting from his death.
Election | Seats won | ± | Votes | % | ± |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1983 | 1 / 17 | 22,861 | 3.0% | ||
1987 | 1 / 17 | 18,420 | 2.5% | 0.5% | |
1992 | 1 / 17 | 19,305 | 2.5% |
Election | Seats won | ± | First pref. votes | % | ± |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1982 | 1 / 78 | 14,916 | 2.3% |
Election | Seats won | ± | First pref. votes | % | ± |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1984 | 0 / 81 | 20,092 | 0.1% |
Election | Seats won | ± | First pref. votes | % | ± |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1981 | 5 / 526 | 7,817 | 1.2% | ||
1985 | 3 / 565 | 2 | 3,139 | 0.5% | 0.7% |
1989 | 3 / 565 | 1,223 | 0.2% | 0.3% | |
1993 | 3 / 582 | 1,730 | 0.3% | 0.1% |
The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI), or simply Alliance, is a liberal and centrist political party in Northern Ireland. Following the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, it was the third-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, holding seventeen seats, and broke through by placing third in first preference votes in the 2019 European Parliament election and polling third-highest regionally at the 2019 UK general election. The party won one of the three Northern Ireland seats in the European Parliament, and one seat, North Down, in the House of Commons, the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Sir James Alexander Kilfedder, usually known as Sir Jim Kilfedder, was a Northern Irish unionist politician.
The Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party (VUPP), informally known as Ulster Vanguard, was a unionist political party which existed in Northern Ireland between 1972 and 1978. Led by William Craig, the party emerged from a split in the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and was closely affiliated with several loyalist paramilitary groups. The party was set up in opposition to power sharing with Irish nationalist parties. It opposed the Sunningdale Agreement and was involved in extra-parliamentary activity against the agreement. However, in 1975, during discussions on the constitutional status of Northern Ireland in the constitutional convention, William Craig suggested the possibility of voluntary power sharing with the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party. In consequence the party split, with dissenters forming the United Ulster Unionist Party. Thereafter Vanguard declined and following poor results in the 1977 local government elections, Craig merged the remainder of Vanguard into the UUP in February 1978.
South Antrim is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is Paul Girvan of the Democratic Unionist Party.
North Down is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is Stephen Farry of the Alliance Party. Farry was elected to the position in the 2019 general election, replacing the incumbent Sylvia Hermon. Hermon had held the position since being elected to it in the 2001 general election, but chose not to contest in 2019.
The Green Party Northern Ireland, sometimes abbreviated as Green Party NI, is a political party in Northern Ireland. Like many green political parties around the world, its origins lie in the anti-nuclear, labour and peace movements of the 1970s and early 1980s.
Belfast City Council is the local authority with responsibility for part of Belfast, the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. The council serves an estimated population of 345,006 (2019), the largest of any district council in Northern Ireland, while being the smallest by area. Belfast City Council is the primary council of the Belfast Metropolitan Area, a grouping of six former district councils with commuter towns and overspill from Belfast, containing a total population of 579,276.
The 1995 North Down by-election, in the North Down constituency, was held on 15 June, following the death of James Kilfedder, who had represented the constituency since the 1970 general election. Kilfedder had formed the Ulster Popular Unionist Party in 1980, but the party disintegrated on his death.
David McNarry is a former Northern Irish unionist politician and Ulster Loyalist representative who served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Strangford from 2003 to 2016.
Fred Cobain, MBE is a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician from Northern Ireland, serving as a Belfast City Councillor for the Castle DEA since 2019. He was previously an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Belfast North from 1998 until 2011.
Denny Vitty is a Northern Irish unionist politician.
William Alexander Fraser Agnew, known as Fraser Agnew, is a retired Northern Irish unionist politician who was an Antrim and Newtownabbey Councillor for the Three Mile Water DEA from 2014 to 2023. He was previously an Independent Unionist Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Belfast North from 1998 to 2003.
The Northern Ireland Conservatives is a section of the United Kingdom's Conservative Party that operates in Northern Ireland. The Conservative 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.
Tom French was a Northern Irish politician who served as president of the Workers' Party from 1994 to 1998, as well as a Craigavon Borough Councillor from 1978 to 1993
The first election to North Down and Ards District Council, part of the Northern Ireland local elections on 22 May 2014, returned 40 members to the newly formed council via Single Transferable Vote. The Democratic Unionist Party won a plurality of first-preference votes and seats.
The Ulster Unionist Party held the majority of Northern Ireland seats in most elections for the Westminster Parliament between 1922 and 2001. Since then its representation has been low or non-existent, having been eclipsed by the Democratic Unionist Party. It always had an absolute majority in the Stormont Parliament (1921–1972); since that Parliament was replaced by the Northern Ireland Assembly it has had a substantial minority representation there. Its share of the vote in Northern Ireland local government elections has tended to diminish, so that there too it is no longer the largest party. Finally, the party has always held one of the three Northern Ireland seats in the European Parliament. Its share of the Northern Ireland vote in the most recent elections to these bodies has been between 10.5% and 16.1%.
Alan Chambers is a Northern Irish unionist politician who was acting Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly between 2022 and 2024. Chambers has been an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for North Down since 2016. He currently serves as Chairperson of the Assembly's Audit Committee.
Elections to North Down Borough Council were held on 17 May 1989 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used four district electoral areas to elect a total of 24 councillors.
Elections to Ards Borough Council were held on 20 May 1981 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used three district electoral areas to elect a total of 17 councillors.