United Ulster Unionist Party

"UUUM" redirects here. For the Japanese company, seeUuum (company).

TheUnited Ulster Unionist Party(UUUP) was aunionistpolitical party which existed inNorthern Irelandbetween 1975 and 1984.

United Ulster Unionist Party
Leader	Ernest Baird
Deputy Leader	Reg Empey
Founded	1975
Dissolved	May 1984
Split from	Ulster Vanguard
Ideology	Ulster loyalism Anti-Power Sharing Return of devolution
National affiliation	UUUC(1975-77)
Politics of Northern Ireland Political parties Elections

It emerged from a division in theVanguard Unionist Progressive Partyin the late 1970s. Vanguard had traditionally opposed the concept of compulsory power sharing withnationalistsenshrined in theSunningdale Agreement,but after the failure of Sunningdale, theNorthern Ireland Constitutional Conventionwas set up to provide a forum with the aim of finding a new settlement for Northern Ireland. During the proceedings the leader of Vanguard,William Craig,proposed a voluntary coalition with the nationalistSocial Democratic and Labour Party.Many in Vanguard found this anathema, including the party's deputy leaderErnest Baird,Mid UlsterMPJohn DunlopandEast BelfastConvention member (and futureUlster Unionist Partyleader)Reg Empey.They left Vanguard and formed theUnited Ulster Unionist Movement.Initially Baird denied that this was a party since the original aim was to create a single Unionist party. When this aim proved unattainable the UUUM relaunched as the United Ulster Unionist Party led by Baird with Empey as Deputy Leader.

Many critics highlighted the irony of the name, given that the UUUP was a breakaway from Vanguard, itself a breakaway from theUlster Unionist Partyand there were many other Unionist parties in existence.

The UUUP did not prosper long. In the1979 general electionDunlop held his seat but only due to an agreement with other unionist parties to not divide the unionist vote where a nationalist might get elected.Elsewhere Baird stood inFermanagh and South Tyrone,dividing the unionist vote but polling poorly.It has been argued that it was Baird's candidacy that ensured a victory forFrank Maguirein the seat.

The decline was evident even before thelocal government elections of 1981as 4 of the 12 UUUP councillors elected in1977had defected to other Unionist parties (2 to UUP, 1 to DUP and 1 to theUlster Popular Unionist Party). The party had a miserable showing in the 1981 elections with its overall vote share declining from 2.8% in 1977 to 0.7% in 1981. It only won 5 council seats (a decline of 7 seats) and even then one of these was purely due to a quirk of the electoral system, as the party only polled 105 votes (1.6%) in Lisburn 'E' against 1,909 (30.0%) for the DUP and 1,830 (28.7%) for the UUP. However they benefited from the other two Unionist parties only putting up one candidate each and benefitted from hefty transfers to win an unlikely seat.

In 1982 a new Northern Ireland Assembly was established to provide a degree of scrutiny over theSecretary of State for Northern Ireland.The UUUP got a derisory vote, with even Dunlop getting barely 3% of the vote in hisMid Ulsterconstituency.The party soon folded. Dunlop remained as MP for Mid Ulster until the1983 general electionbut did not contest his seat. The formal end came in May 1984 when Baird dissolved the party and left it to individual members to choose which Unionist party to join in its wake.

Election results: 1979

Constituency	Candidate	Votes	%	Position
Fermanagh and South Tyrone	Ernest Baird	10,607	17.0	4
Mid Ulster	John Dunlop	29,249	44.7	1