Ulster Unionist Party

Ulster Unionist Party MLA Mike Nesbitt

Mike Nesbitt fears for the future of Unionism as he reflects on DUP's leadership

No10 Downing Street

Downing Street criticised over Irish flag on post about Northern Ireland

Dual English and Irish signs at Cromac Street, at the junction with May Street, near Belfast City Centre. The Irish sign joined the English language one years ago, under the old street sign policy. But republicans want far more Irish signs, including in areas where there is no support for them, and their new extremist policy has led to an entirely predictable deluge of requests for signs across Belfast

Ben Lowry: Belfast's extremist Irish street sign policy is unfolding as intended

Tom Elliott on parade during his term as Co Fermanagh Royal Black county grand master. Pic: John McVitty

Chapter Chat: Tom Elliott reflects on time as Fermanagh county grand master

The aftermath of the Shankill bomb on October 23 1993. We remember the nine people killed, and many others who were injured. Picture: Pacemaker

Doug Beattie: Thirty years after Shankill bomb, SF till eulogising the bombers

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson delivers his keynote speech during his party's annual conference on Saturday. His speech included the UUP argument that direct rule would be bad for Northern Ireland: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Doug Beattie: If I said what DUP leader has said I would be called a Lundy

Letter to the editor

Letter: Unionism will achieve nothing through a boycott

Letter to the editor

Letter: When exactly would our place in the Union would become eroded, Doug?

The Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie talks to the News Letter editor Ben Lowry at the Conservative Party conference on Monday October 2 2023. The DUP are not attending the event

Staying out of Stormont for 18 months has achieved nothing, says Doug Beattie

Ex UUP then Ukip MLA David McNarry, centre, with Ukip leader Nigel Farage, right, canvassing for Brexit in Belfast in 2016. Those who tried to convince unionists to vote for a party led by someone who isn't a true believer in the Union see he stabbed them in the back. His belief that a united Ireland is coming will delight republicans. Pic: Stephen Hamilton /Presseye

Reg Empey: Unionists fell into trap thinking Brexiteers like Farage care

Morning View

Editorial: Not only is Byrne unfit for job but the policing board is too

A picture of Robbie Butler, UUP MLA, Gavin Robinson, DUP MP, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP, DUP leader, and UUP leader Doug Beattie MLA enjoying coffee. Will DUP politicians such as Mr Robinson and Sir Jeffrey who seem prepared to go back to Stormont break from their more sceptical colleagues?

Ben Lowry: Signs of friendliness among unionists but not yet of realignment

Morning View

Editorial: Provocative use of Irish in areas where it is not wanted is unhelpful

Morning View

Editorial: Nursing situation in NI is not just due to lack of overall UK funding

Letters to editor

Letter: No party has unionist mandate for a return to Stormont

William King MBE, who has sadly passed away

Tributes paid following the passing of former Coleraine Mayor
Tributes have been paid to 'a great family man and dedicated councillor' following the death of William King MBE.

A triumphant Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle O'Neill (left) and President Mary Lou McDonald at Belfast City Hall for the recent local election count. Their surge has been brought about by their pragmatic stance on reversing their purist republican credentials, swallowing up their negative historical stance with a charm offensive which has worked and worked spectacularly. Photo Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Doug Beattie: A fully functioning Stormont will stop swing to SF in its tracks

The DUP went into government with Sinn Fein in 2007 so that Dr Ian Paisley could be first minister and at St Andrews for their own selfish interest they changed the position of first minister from the largest political grouping, unionist or nationalist, to the largest political party, which to all our costs is Sinn Fein

Letter: DUP got us into this mess so they can decide on Stormont return

A fresh party that supports regional businesses, argues for tough law and order, and is willing to use UK state power to increase apprenticeships, domestic agriculture, energy security, industry and housebuilding

Letter: We need a party that is unionist in action, but less so in tone

Letters to editor

Letter: Unionist disunity isn't the problem but a consequence of an offended God

The crowd hoping to get a glimpse of the royal couple at Hazelbank Park last week. Royal visits should not be used as a diversion. Picture: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press.

Letter: We should not yield to bids to distract us from our core Britishness

UUP leader Doug Beattie. It is time for him too talk to the DUP. The political stakes are too high for allowing sentiment to wash over unionists

David McNarry: I do not agree with Ben Lowry about the Ulster Unionist Party

The SDLP leader Colum Eastwood addressing the UUP conference in 2016, where he got a rapturous reception. That suggested a politics in which the SDLP and UUP looked inward to the centre rather than outwards to their tribe. Such centrist politics never came to pass. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Ben Lowry: The UUP and SDLP are far from finished – unless they want to be so

Stormont has been down for 16 months but unionist voters have endorsed that. Calling for direct rule may reap rewards for the DUP if they are prepared to sacrifice salaries

Letter: The DUP must stand firm and refuse to nominate Stormont ministers

One of the election counts last week, Banbridge. For the first time, nationalist parties have clearly outpolled unionist parties, by 2.6%. Unionists must be tempted to circle the wagons. Yet this has only consolidated DUP dominance within a shrinking unionism. And unionism has an advantage – republican complacency

Gerry Lynch: Despite tactical DUP success poll a historic win for nationalists

Ballot boxes at last week's count in Banbridge. Some pundits think there are more independent unionist candidates who poll in the thousands than nationalists. But while all such independents would push the unionist total closer to 40% than the headline main-party figure suggests, there is also a case to be made that People Before Profit is a republican party

Ben Lowry: Nationalists most votes, even if small unionist candidates included

The outgoing Ulster Unionist Party member and one-time council candidate from Newtownards Michael Palmer. He held positions including Vice President of the Ulster Young Unionists and Strangford UUP Diversity Officer

Letter: The UUP cannot recover, so after 10 years I am quitting it
A letter from Michael Palmer:

Letters to editor

Letter: Ulster is in freefall yet our unionists aren't up to the challenge

Ballot papers begin to be counted at Belfast City Hall for the Northern Ireland council elections.

Council elections: Counting underway at 11 count centres across Northern Ireland

Ballot papers begin to be counted at Belfast City Hall for the Northern Ireland council elections.

Local Government elections 2023: Counting begins for the NI council elections

Former big name in Belfast UUP breaks with old comrades to endorse DUP

A royal fan walks along The Mall yesterday ahead of today's royal coronation in London. The ceremony will show how the world has progressed. The coronation will unite all four parts of the United Kingdom (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Doug Beattie: A time for coming together to mark this historic moment

The EU and Irish governments, as well as the UK, are saying ‘NO’ to unionism, regarding international standards on territorial integrity. The two governments have agreed to abide by relevant international law. They must be held to account

Belfast Agreement @25: Dermot Nesbitt on the double standards on rights

DUP MLA Emma Little-Pengelly and Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie attending the international conference at Queen's University Belfast on Tuesday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. Mr Beattie today told the Nolan show he has 'no doubt the Executive will get up and running. It’s not a case of ‘if’, it’s a case of ‘when''

Stormont will be back up and running by autumn – Doug Beattie

A portrait of the late Lord (David) Trimble by Colin Davidson, which was unveiled weeks before the former UUP leader's death in July 2022. The year before, Trimble wrote: "For the Ulster Unionist Party, of which I was then the leader, there were unpalatable compromises to swallow in 1998. Despite all these compromises, the majority of people in NI endorsed the agreement on the basis that NI’s constitutional position within the UK could not be changed"

Belfast Agreement @25: I feel betrayed by the protocol, wrote David Trimble

The former secretary of state and Tory wet, Julian Smith, addressed a 25th anniversary Ulster Unionist dinner on Saturday April 1. Writes Mr Ross: "Mr Smith did not strike
me as a Conservative or a unionist"

Letter: The UUParty invited to their dinner an MP who seems hostile to unionism

Daphne Trimble talks to News Letter features editor Helen McGurk in her Lisburn home

Daphne Trimble on her late husband's legacy in Northern Ireland's peace process

Morning View

Editorial: President Joe Biden should indeed be made aware of the Disappeared

The former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern addresses the anniversary gathering. Pictures Roy Crawford Photography

Ulster Unionist Party holds dinner to mark the Belfast Agreement anniversary

Letters to editor

Reg Empey: The dangerous rhetoric on the Windsor deal needs to be dialled down

The Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie, second from right, stood with Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP), Billy Hutchinson (Progressive Unionist Party), and Jim Allister (TUV) at Stormont in a 2021 Ulster Day joint unionist pledge against the NI Protocol. Now he sees ‘opportunities’ in the Windsor Framework, but there is none in an entrenched Irish Sea border. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Kate Hoey: I urge Doug Beattie to stand with us again to demand NI fully in UK

Parliament has made its views known on the framework and the EU is signing off on the details.With the deal with the EU done, and a possible Labour government coming to power in London and Sinn Fein in Dublin, this is a good time to take stock

Reg Empey: Our warnings were ignored by those who charged into a hard Brexit

Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie says the “Stormont brake offers Northern Ireland politicians a unique say in EU laws”

Beattie backs Windsor Framework as a first ‘stepping stone’

The demand for the primacy of Westminster laws over EU ones in Northern Ireland has grown with time, as the latter have increasingly been seen to be the crux of the problem with regard to the internal trade barrier

Ben Lowry: Unionists have not as claimed got most of their demands in this deal

Letters to editor

Letter: Strong and decisive unionist leadership is needed against NI Protocol

The Republic of Ireland's territory was used by the IRA to import and store arms, mount cross border attacks, coordinate ethnic cleansing of minority Protestant communities in the border area, and act as a safe haven for IRA terrorists, The UK faced overwhelming difficulties in trying to extradite terror suspects

Republic's role in Troubles must be highlighted if we are to understand legacy

Former DUP leader and Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster, now Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee

DUP ‘made great mistake in dispensing with’ Arlene Foster, says Tory peer

Undated handout photo issued by Press Eye of John Kyle who has been sworn in as the new High Sheriff of Belfast. A member of the Ulster Unionist Party at Belfast City Council, he replaces the DUP's John Hussey as the 123rd High Sheriff of the city. Issue date: Wednesday January 18, 2023.

John Kyle has been sworn in as the new High Sheriff of Belfast

Morning View

Morning View: The UUP can now at times seem confused on some core issues

Letters to editor

Letters: Big mistake to present sea border as a commercial problem

Carl McClean showed confidence to speak for the Ulster Unionist party locally from the day he was elected a councillor for the party in May 2014 in Bangor, above

Ben Lowry: The UUP has somehow lost a politician who seemed a natural fit for it

Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie pictured at the 2021 UUP conference. Carl McClean writes: "Beyond platitudes about togetherness, the public does not know what the UUP stands for and I’m not sure the UUP does either"
Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Councillor: I am quitting the UUP – a party I came back to NI to support

Doug Beattie quickly apologised for his careless comments. He was giving an emotional speech at the time, whilst being heckled

As the female chair of the Ulster Unionist Party, I back Doug Beattie as leader

Letter to the editor

The Ulster Unionist Party should have the guts to say Doug Beattie is wrong

Tourists at Falls/Shankill peaceline. Reconciliation was abandoned for mutual accommodation

Johnny Andrews: Reconciliation should be at heart of overdue review of Stormont