1.2.3 – Minor politics parties
2.1.3 – Devolution
Jon Burrows, the MLA for North Antrim, is set to become the next leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), after he was the only candidate proposed when nominations closed on Thursday last week.
Burrows’ elevation to the leadership of the party caps a remarkable rise to the top, given he was only co-opted to the Assembly in August. He will replace Mike Nesbitt as leader of the party. Nesbitt also serves as the Health Minister – the party’s sole member of the Executive.
Burrows will become the eighth different leader of the UUP since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, which restored a devolved legislature to Northern Ireland.
The task ahead of him is an unenviable one, with the UUP nowhere near the force they once were. At the time of the Good Friday Agreement, the UUP was the preeminent unionist party. They won 28 seats out of the 108 available, in the 1998 Assembly election, with their leader, David Trimble, becoming the inaugural First Minister of Northern Ireland.
However, unionist dissent over the Good Friday Agreement – and the prospect of sharing power with Sinn Féin – saw the UUP being eclipsed by the more hardline Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). The UUP’s seat total is now in single digits – winning just 9 out of 90 seats at the last Assembly election.
It is yet to be confirmed whether Burrows will seek to replace Nesbitt as the party’s ministerial representative on the Executive, or whether he will leave Mike Nesbitt in place, choosing instead to focus on the next Assembly elections, which are due in May 2027.
Burrows’ running mate for the deputy leadership role is Diana Armstrong, the party’s MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone. Armstrong is the party’s only female MLA.
If Burrows and Armstrong are both ratified by the party’s ruling body – the Ulster Unionist Council – it will mean its two most senior elected figures at Stormont are co-optees – people chosen to replace elected representatives who are standing down. Unlike at Westminster, MLAs who vacate their seat can be replaced by their party without any public election. Co-option is an important mechanism in the context of Northern Irish devolution for ensuring smaller parties do not lost out on representation should a member resign or die. However, critics say that the mechanism has also been abused by parties to allow them to replace outgoing MLAs ahead of elections, and blood new candidates in to gain them more notoriety.