Ulster unionist
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Ulster Unionist Party
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|---|---|
 |
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| Abbreviation | UUP |
| Leader | Robin Swann |
| President | May Steele |
| Chairman | The Lord Empey |
| Founded | 3 March 1905 |
| Preceded by | Irish Unionist Alliance |
| Headquarters | Strandtown Hall 2-4 Belmont Road Belfast Northern Ireland |
| Youth wing | Young Unionists |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Centre-right |
| European affiliation | Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe |
| International affiliation | None |
| European Parliament group | European Conservatives and Reformists |
| Colours | Red, white and blue |
|
House of Commons (NI Seats) |
2 / 18
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| House of Lords |
2 / 800
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|
EU Parliament (NI seats) |
1 / 3
|
| NI Assembly |
10 / 90
|
| NI Local Councils |
90 / 462
|
| Website | |
| www |
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The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is one of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Having gathered support in the north of Ireland during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the party governed Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. It was supported by most unionist voters throughout the conflict known as the Troubles, during which time it was often referred to as the Official Unionist Party (OUP).
It is currently the fourth party in Northern Ireland, having been overtaken in 2003 by the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin and in 2017 by the SDLP. At the 2015 general election, the party won two seats in the House of Commons, Fermanagh and South Tyrone and South Antrim.
In 2016, the UUP, the SDLP and the Alliance Party decided not to accept the seats on the Northern Ireland Executive to which they would have been entitled and to form an official opposition to the executive. This marked the first time since 1921 that a devolved government in Northern Ireland did not include the UUP. The party was led by Mike Nesbitt, but on 3 March 2017 he announced his resignation following the party's poor performance in that year's assembly election.
The Ulster Unionist Party traces its formal existence back to the foundation of the Ulster Unionist Council in 1905. Before that, however, there had been a less formally organised Irish Unionist Alliance (IUA) since the late 19th century, usually dominated by unionists from Ulster. Modern organised unionism properly emerged after William Ewart Gladstone's introduction in 1886 of the first of three Home Rule Bills in response to demands by the Irish Parliamentary Party. The IUA was an alliance of Irish Conservatives and Liberal Unionists, the latter having split from the Liberal Party over the issue of home rule. It was the merger of these two parties in 1912 that gave rise to the current name of the Conservative and Unionist Party, to which the UUP was formally linked (to varying degrees) until 1985.
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Wikipedia