Letter: The Ulster Unionist Party cannot recover, so after 10 years I am quitting it

(Scroll down for a link to an opinion article in which Ben Lowry says that the UUP is not in fact finished)

After nearly ten years of service (having joined in 2013), I resign from the Ulster Unionist Party. This includes my positions as Vice President of the Ulster Young Unionists, Strangford UUP Diversity Officer and Strangford Executive Delegate.

I stood for the UUP in the 2019 council election for Comber DEA for Ards and North Down Borough Council, during which the UUP also declined as it appears to be declining again in the 2023 council election. This will now be the sixth election in a row since 2017 (Assembly: 2017, 2022; Council: 2019, 2023; Euro: 2019; Westminster: 2017) the UUP has declined, in which the party didn't decline in the 2019 Westminster election as they had no seats anyway.

Therefore, based on this evidence, I no longer believe it is possible for the UUP to recover and I believe it is destined to continue declining. I will still be involved in Northern Ireland politics as a political activist but no longer for the UUP after nearly ten years of service.

Michael Palmer, Former UUP Member, Co Down

Ben Lowry: The Ulster Unionist Party is not in fact finished