Assess how successful the Ulster Unionist Party has been in challenging the dominance of the Democratic Unionist Party.

Authors Avatar by erinruth99gmailcom (student)

Assess how successful the Ulster Unionist Party has been in challenging the dominance of the Democratic Unionist Party. [26]

From 1999 onwards, support for the Ulster Unionist Party steadily declined as Unionist voters deserted to the Democratic Unionists. Since the St Andrew’s Agreement of 2006 the DUP has dominated Unionist politics. The task for the UUP leadership, since they were replaced as the dominant Unionist Party has been to halt this decline. Both parties have commonality in the principles of unionism. The key unionist principle is to defend the union, so therefore the difference between unionist parties would be ways to maintain unionism and to different level of compromise with Nationalism. The UUP has attempted to challenge this dominance in many ways with varying degrees of success. In examining their efforts, a good place to start is their pact with the Tory party.

The UUP leadership has attempted a number of initiatives, the highest profile of which has been its pact with the British Conservative Party in 2010. They hoped that this would make Northern Ireland matter electorally in the UK, thereby strengthening the union. They also hoped for financial and technical support in the form of electoral support. However, the link caused deep rifts in the party. Their only MP, Lady Sylvia Hermon, declared herself an independent at the 2010 General Election in protest and won with an increased majority.

Join now!

There is also evidence that the UUP has sought to shake up its leadership team in response to claims that it was too middle aged, middle class and too male. Reg Empy appeared an older, respectable but less dynamic voice for Unionism. Tom Elliott was chosen as his replacement. He was a hard line choice and this put the party in similar grounds to the DUP – he also made several faux pas including calling Sinn Fein ‘scum.’ Yet another leadership change to Mike Nesbitt seems to have made a steadying impact. Under Nesbitt the party seems to have stopped ...

This is a preview of the whole essay