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Line 5: \| country = Northern Ireland \| name = UK Unionist Party \| colorcode = {{party color\|UK Unionist Party~~/meta/color~~}} \| logo = UK Unionist Party logo.png \| leader = [[Robert McCartney (Northern Irish politician)\|Robert McCartney]] Line 14: [[Nonsectarianism]] [[Direct rule over Northern Ireland\|Integrationism]] * [[Euroscepticism]] * ~~Anti-~~[[ Northern Ireland Assembly\|Anti-Devolution]]\| * ~~Anti-~~[[Good Friday Agreement\|Anti-Belfast Agreement]]}} \| position = [[Centre-right politics\|Centre-right]]~~{{citation~~ ~~needed\|date=March~~to ~~2021}}~~[[Right-wing politics\|right-wing]] \| international = \| european = Line 38 ⟶ 39: At the [[1997 United Kingdom general election\|1997 general election]], McCartney was re-elected as the Member of Parliament for [[North Down (UK Parliament constituency)\|North Down]]. The party opposed the April 1998 [[Belfast Agreement]] and campaigned against the establishment of a [[Northern Ireland Assembly]], in which they were unsuccessful. It did contest the [[1998 Northern Ireland Assembly election\|election]] for the Assembly, however, and won five seats. During 1998, the party suffered a significant amount of internal turmoil. O'Brien published an article in which he called for unionists to consider and embrace the idea of a [[United Ireland]] (to challenge the growth in popularity of Sinn Féin) – an idea that was anathema to most in the UKUP. He subsequently resigned from the party. In December the party split over the issue of Sinn Féin taking up its seats in the power-sharing executive without prior Provisional Irish Republican Army decommissioning of weapons. McCartney proposed that if this should happen, the five UKUP members should resign their seats in protest, but this was opposed by the other assembly members. At a party meeting at which the other four were absent, McCartney censured his Assembly colleagues over this split. The two sides both argued that they had the support of the grassroots members of the party. On 5 January 1999, all four left the UKUP to form the [[Northern Ireland Unionist Party]] (NIUP), leaving McCartney as the sole UKUP representative in the assembly. At the [[2001 United Kingdom general election\|2001 general election]], McCartney lost his seat in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom\|House of Commons]] to the [[Ulster Unionist Party]], which in addition to putting considerable resources into taking the seat, benefited from the withdrawal of the [[Alliance Party of Northern Ireland]] due to McCartney's opposition to the Good Friday Agreement. In the [[2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election\|2003 Assembly election]], he was only narrowly re-elected to the Assembly. The party suffered a substantial decline in the election, holding only one seat. The NIUP also lost all of its seats. Line 44 ⟶ 45: In 2005, the UKUP did not contest any seats in [[2005 United Kingdom general election\|the Westminster election]]. In [[2005 Northern Ireland local elections\|the local elections]], its two members of [[North Down Borough Council]] lost their seats. In the [[2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election\|2007 Assembly election]], the UKUP fielded candidates in thirteen of Northern Ireland's eighteen constituencies, but failed to win any seats.<ref>{{cite news \| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/6434765.stm \| work=BBC News \| title=McCartney multiple seat bid fails \| date=9 March 2007 \| access-date=26 May 2010 \| archive-date=18 December 2008 \| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218230503/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/6434765.stm \| url-status=live }}</ref> Leader McCartney personally stood in six constituencies and former DUP MLA [[George Ennis]] also stood on the UKUP ticket. The party stood on a [[Political platform\|platform]] opposing plans by the DUP to enter into devolved government with Sinn Féin after the election and on other issues including rates, water charges and education. The UKUP was seen as the main channel for DUP members disaffected with plans to share power with Sinn Féin.{{Citation needed\|date=July 2009}} Following McCartney's defeat in [[North Down (Assembly constituency)\|North Down]] in the 2007 Assembly elections ~~in 2007~~, the UKUP was left without elected representatives at any level. McCartney announced his retirement from politics following the loss of his assembly seat in North Down to [[Brian Wilson (Northern Ireland politician)\|Brian Wilson]] of the [[Green Party in Northern Ireland\|Green Party]].{{Citation needed\|date=March 2008}} As of September 2008, the UKUP is no longer listed as a registered party in the Northern Ireland Register of Political Parties maintained by the UK Electoral Commission.<ref>{{cite web\|url= http://registers.electoralcommission.org.uk/regulatory-issues/regpoliticalparties.cfm?ec=%7Bts%20%272008%2D08%2D23%2023%3A22%3A23%27%7D\|title= Northern Ireland Register of Political Parties\|publisher= Electoral Commission}}{{Dead link\|date=April 2023 \|bot=InternetArchiveBot \|fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> ==Electoral performance== Line 60 ⟶ 61: \|- ![[1997 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland\|1997]] \| {{Composition bar\|1\|18\|hex={{party color\|UK Unionist Party~~/meta/color~~}}}} \| {{increase}}1 \| 12,817 Line 67 ⟶ 68: \|- ![[2001 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland\|2001]] \| {{Composition bar\|0\|18\|hex={{party color\|UK Unionist Party~~/meta/color~~}}}} \| {{decrease}}1 \| 13,509 Line 85 ⟶ 86: \|- ![[Northern Ireland Forum\|1996]] \| {{Composition bar\|3\|110\|hex={{party color\|UK Unionist Party~~/meta/color~~}}}} \| {{increase}}3 \| 27,774 Line 103 ⟶ 104: \|- ![[1998 Northern Ireland Assembly election\|1998]] \| {{Composition bar\|5\|108\|hex={{party color\|UK Unionist Party~~/meta/color~~}}}} \| {{increase}}2 \| 36,541 Line 110 ⟶ 111: \|- ![[2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election\|2003]] \| {{Composition bar\|1\|108\|hex={{party color\|UK Unionist Party~~/meta/color~~}}}} \| {{decrease}}4 \| 5,700 Line 117 ⟶ 118: \|- ![[2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election\|2007]] \| {{Composition bar\|0\|108\|hex={{party color\|UK Unionist Party~~/meta/color~~}}}} \| {{decrease}}1 \| 10,452 Line 135 ⟶ 136: \|- ![[1999 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom\|1999]] \| {{Composition bar\|0\|87\|hex={{party color\|Ulster Popular Unionist Party~~/meta/color~~}}}} \| {{steady}} \| 20,283 Line 153 ⟶ 154: \|- ![[1997 Northern Ireland local elections\|1997]] \| {{Composition bar\|4\|575\|hex={{party color\|UK Unionist Party~~/meta/color~~}}}} \| {{increase}}4 \| 2,945 Line 160 ⟶ 161: \|- ![[2001 Northern Ireland local elections\|2001]] \| {{Composition bar\|2\|582\|hex={{party color\|UK Unionist Party~~/meta/color~~}}}} \| {{decrease}}2 \| 4,763 Line 167 ⟶ 168: \|- ![[2005 Northern Ireland local elections\|2005]] \| {{Composition bar\|0\|582\|hex={{party color\|UK Unionist Party~~/meta/color~~}}}} \| {{decrease}}2 \| 734 Line 187 ⟶ 188: [[Category:Political parties established in 1995]] [[Category:Political parties disestablished in 2008]] [[Category:~~Ulster~~Protestant ~~unionism~~political parties]] [[Category:Ulster unionist organisations]]