William Long (UK politician)

William Joseph Long OBE (23 April 1922 – 10 February 2008) was a Unionist politician in Northern Ireland.

Long was born in in England and studied at the Friends' School in Great Ayton, the Royal Veterinary College in Edinburgh and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He became an officer in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and was posted to Northern Ireland in 1940. While there, he married Doreen Mercer, a local doctor, and in 1942, the two settled in Northern Ireland.

Long left the British Army in 1948 and became the Secretary of the Northern Ireland Marriage Guidance Council. In 1951, he became Secretary of the Northern Ireland Chest and Heart Association. He joined the Ulster Unionist Party, and was elected to Donaghadee Urban District Council in 1952, serving as Chairman from 1955 until 1964. He was also a member of Down County Council Health and Education Committees.

At the Northern Ireland general election, 1962, Long was elected MP for Ards. Soon after his election, he made headlines by accusing the management of the Harland and Wolff shipyard of introducing "capital punishment" by sacking 2,000 men during a strike.