Ulster Unionist Party

Ulster Unionist Party Ulsters Unionist Party
Party leader	Steve Aiken
founding	1905
Headquarters	174 Albertbridge Road Belfast Northern Ireland
Youth organization	Young Unionists
Alignment	Unionism Conservatism Liberalism Progressivism EU skepticism
Colours)	 Red white blue
British House of Commons	0/650
British House of Lords	2/794
Northern Ireland Assembly	10/90
Local government in Northern Ireland	90/462
European party	European Conservatives and Reformists Party (EKR)
Website	www.uup.org

The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP, Irish Páirtí Aontachtach Uladh, German  Unionist Party Ulsters ) is a unionist and Protestant party in Northern Ireland . It was founded in 1905 as the "Unionist Party" and represented the unity of Ireland with Great Britain . For a long time it was the most important Protestant party in the country, but in 2002 it lost this position to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) led by Ian Paisley . Steve Aiken has been chairman of the UUP since November 9, 2019 .

history

During the period of self-government in Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1972, the UUP, benefiting from the majority vote, always had an absolute majority in the Northern Irish Parliament and provided the Prime Minister. In the first election to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998, which was established after the Good Friday Agreement , it became the largest party and its leader David Trimble became First Minister. Since the 1970s, however, the UUP's share of the vote has continuously decreased.

In the general election on May 5, 2005 , the UUP lost five of its six seats (four to the radical DUP, one to the Republican- Social Democratic SDLP ). The UUP was then only represented in parliament by the MP Sylvia Hermon from the constituency of North Down. In the general election on May 6, 2010 , the UUP won no mandate at all.

In the European Parliament , the UUP was always represented by one of three Northern Irish MEPs in all European elections. From 1987 to 1989 she was a member of the far-right group of the European Right (ER). Since the European elections in 2009, she has been a member of the European party Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformers (AECR) and of the associated European Parliamentary Group European Conservatives and Reformers (ECR). Before that she was a member of the European Democrats , a sub-group of the EPP-ED Group.

Former party leader Sir Reg Empey was appointed to the House of Lords in November 2010 .

Before the general election on May 7, 2015 , there was a constituency agreement with the DUP, according to which both parties in the constituencies of Fermanagh and South Tyrone and Newry and Armagh each have one candidate from the UUP and one candidate from the DUP in the constituencies of Belfast East and Belfast North put up. As a result, the UUP was able to win the first two constituencies mentioned, so that it was again represented in Westminster in the following legislative period.

On August 30, 2015, the UUP announced its withdrawal from the Northern Irish government. Party leader Mike Nesbitt said the UUP could not be represented in a government with Sinn Féin as long as the Provisional IRA , whose existence is denied by Sinn Féin, continues to carry out assassinations such as the one on Kevin McGuigan, which is classified as revenge for the murder of Gerard Davison , perform.

In the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election , the party won 16 out of 108 seats. After that she did not send any representatives to the government, as she should actually have been entitled to, but remained in the opposition. With regard to the question of whether the United Kingdom would remain in the European Union , the UUP was undecided for a long time and said it would wait until the outcome of the negotiations by Prime Minister David Cameron in Brussels. On March 5, 2016, the party leadership was one of the last British parties to announce its position on the issue. She recommended that her voters vote in favor of remaining in the EU in the upcoming referendum on EU membership . Previously, the rival DUP had already decided on a vote to leave the EU.

As a result of the UUP's disappointing performance in the 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election , party leader Mike Nesbitt announced his resignation from the party presidency on March 3, 2017.

Election results

The election results in the following table refer to Northern Ireland (also for the all-British elections). General elections were carried out consistently by majority voting , elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998 and elections to the European Parliament by preferential suffrage .

year	choice	Share of votes	Seats
1973	Northern Ireland Assembly 1973	25.3%	24/78
1974	General election Feb. 1974	32.3%	7/12
1974	General election October 1974	36.5%	7/12
1979	European elections 1979	11.9%	1/3
1979	General election 1979	36.6%	5/12
1982	Northern Ireland Assembly 1982	29.7%	26/78
1983	General election 1983	34.0%	11/17
1984	European elections in 1984	21.5%	1/3
1987	General election 1987	37.8%	9/17
1989	European elections 1989	22.2%	1/3
1992	General election 1992	34.5%	9/17
1994	European elections in 1994	23.8%	1/3
1997	General election 1997	32.7%	10/18
1998	Northern Ireland Assembly 1998	21.3%	28/108
1999	European elections 1999	17.6%	1/3
2001	General election 2001	26.8%	6/18
2003	Northern Ireland Assembly 2003	22.7%	27/108
2004	2004 European elections	16.6%	1/3
2005	General election 2005	17.7%	1/18
2007	Northern Ireland Assembly 2007	14.9%	18/108
2009	European elections 2009	17.1%	1/3
2010	General election 2010	15.2%	0/18
2011	Northern Ireland Assembly 2011	13.2%	16/108
2014	European elections 2014	13.3%	1/3
2015	General election 2015	16.0%	2/18
2016	Northern Ireland Assembly 2016	12.6%	16/108
2017	Northern Ireland Assembly 2017	12.9%	10/90
2017	General election 2017	10.3%	0/18
2019	European elections 2019	9.3%	0/3
2019	General election 2019	11.7%	0/18

Web links

• Homepage of the UUP

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Steve Aiken takes over as the new leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. BBC , November 9, 2019, accessed November 9, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Britta Schellenberg: Hardly any visions for a common future - the right are on the way to a "Nation Europe" . In: The Parliament . No. 45 , 2005 ( archive link ).
3. ^ The Irish Times: Empey to join House of Lords , November 19, 2010
4. ^ Election 2015: DUP and UUP agree pact in four constituencies. BBC News, March 18, 2015, accessed May 9, 2015 . 
5. ^ UUP decides to withdraw from Northern Ireland Executive. BBC News, August 29, 2015, accessed August 30, 2015 . 
6. ^ NI Assembly: UUP will go into opposition at Stormont. BBC News, May 12, 2016, accessed February 19, 2017 . 
7. ↑ NI parties outline EU referendum position. (No longer available online.) U TV, February 21, 2016, archived from the original on February 23, 2016 ; accessed on February 22, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Ulster Unionists in favor of staying within EU. BBC News, March 5, 2016, accessed March 5, 2016 . 
9. ↑ Mike Nesbitt steps down as UUP leader. BBC News, March 3, 2017, accessed March 4, 2017 . 
10. ↑ Who Won What When and Where? ark.ac.uk (Nicholas Whyte), January 1, 2015, accessed March 8, 2015 . 
11. ↑ Martin Melaugh, Fionnuala McKenna: CAIN Web Service: Results of Elections Held in Northern Ireland Since 1968. cain.ulst.ac.uk, February 9, 2014, accessed on March 8, 2015 (English, for the older elections there are e.g. T. Differences in numbers for the Northern Ireland Assembly between ark.ac.uk and cain.ulst.ac.uk. In these cases, preference was given to the former). 
12. ↑ European election 2009. BBC News, June 14, 2004, accessed March 8, 2015 . 
13. ↑ European election 2009. BBC News, June 8, 2009, accessed March 8, 2015 . 
14. ↑ European election 2009. BBC News, May 27, 2014, accessed March 8, 2015 . 
15. ↑ ^{a b c d} Ulster Conservatives and Unionists - New Force (UCUNF)