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The Conservatives in Northern Ireland is a name given to the wing of the Conservative and Unionist Party of the United Kingdom that operates in Northern Ireland. The party currently has a low support base, attracting 0.5% of the poll (3,500 votes) in the 2007 Assembly election.
1922-1972
Traditionally the Conservative Party maintained formal links with the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), its members taking the Conservative whip in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, much like the then-independent Unionist Party of Scotland, which integrated into the party in England and Wales in the 1960s.
This relationship broke down in 1972, following Unionist opposition to the proposed Sunningdale Agreement, when all but one of the UUP MPs resigned the Conservative whip. The sole exception, Stratton Mills, left the UUP and continued to take the whip for a further year, before joining the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland.
Entry into Northern Ireland
The Conservative Party did not organise in Northern Ireland until the late 1980s, when three Unionist members of North Down Borough Council defected to the party. The party doubled its representation there in the local government elections of 1989, becoming the largest party on the council. An Independent Conservative also won a seat on Lisburn Borough council,[1][2] although he joined the UUP before the 1993 local elections. In the 1989 European Elections the Conservative candidate polled 4.8% and was just 2,000 first preference votes behind the Alliance Party candidate.
Subsequently, the Conservatives were boosted by a number of other defectors. Former UUP Assembly members Dorothy Dunlop and Billy Bleakes defected in Belfast and Lisburn respectively, while Robert Mitchell, a former Stormont MP, defected in Coleraine. Mary Ardill, a relative of prominent former Stormont MP Austin Ardill, joined in Carrick and Gary Haggan defected from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Larne. Lloyd Hall-Thompson, another retired former UUP Stormont politician, became chair of the local Lagan Valley branch.[3]
Electoral performance
The Conservatives in Northern Ireland currently have a low support base, attracting 0.5% of the poll (3,500 votes) in the 2007 Assembly election. As of 2007[update], they currently have no elected representatives in the Northern Ireland Assembly or Parliament. Their sole Councillor was elected as an Ulster Unionist in 2005,[4] and saw his total first preference vote more than half when standing in a much larger area in 2007.[5]
The party's best performance came in the 1992 UK general election, when party candidates polled 44,608 votes across Northern Ireland: 5.7% of the total. Their best performance came in the North Down constituency, where the local party chairman, Laurence Kennedy, came second, 5,000 votes behind the sitting MP James Kilfedder.
Subsequently, the party rapidly declined. In the 1993 council elections, the party lost five council seats, being reduced to six councillors across Northern Ireland. In North Down, the party's support more than halved, from 25% in 1989 to 11% in 1993, although they narrowly managed to win a seat in all four North Down electoral areas. Laurence Kennedy quit Northern Irish politics a few months later, while the party's councillors in Lisburn and Carrick left the party to sit as Independent Unionists. In 1997 they were reduced to two council seats in North Down. Both councillors retired before the 2001 council elections and the party failed to defend one of their seats in 2001 with the other lost, leaving them without elected representation in Northern Ireland.
Policy
The party in Northern Ireland was largely opposed to the Good Friday Agreement, in contrast to the national leadership who were in favour.[6].
Relationship with the UUP
The former UUP leader and First Minister, David Trimble was elevated to the House of Lords on losing his Commons seat. Shortly after standing down from the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2007, he took the Conservative whip. On doing so he made it clear that he would not be campaigning on behalf of the Northern Ireland Conservatives in opposition to his former party[7]
In July 2008 David Cameron and Sir Reg Empey announced a working group to develop a partnership with the Ulster Unionist Party[8].
References
External links
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Political parties in the United Kingdom |
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European Parliament
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Conservatives (EPP-ED, 28) · Labour (PES, 19) · Liberal Democrats (ELDR, 11) · UKIP (ID, 9) · Greens (E&W) (EGP, 2) · SNP (EFA, 2) • Plaid Cymru (EFA, 1) · Sinn Féin (EUL-NGL, 1) · UUP (EPP-ED, 1) · Independent (ADIE, 1) · Independent (NA, 1) · Independent (NA, 1) · Independent (NA, 1)
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Notes:
#Although Sinn Féin have five elected members and have offices at Westminster, they are abstentionist and therefore do not take their seats
†Co-operative candidates stand jointly with the Labour Party as “Labour and Co-operative Party” candidates.
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| Portal:Politics - List of political parties - Politics of the United Kingdom |
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