The Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) is a minor unionist

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. It was formed from the Independent Unionist Group operating in the Shankill area of

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

, becoming the PUP in 1979. Linked to the

Ulster Volunteer Force The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalism, Ulster loyalist paramilitary group based in Northern Ireland. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former Royal Ulster Rifles soldier from North ...

(UVF) and

Red Hand Commando The Red Hand Commando (RHC) is a small secretive Ulster loyalism#Paramilitary and vigilante groups, Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland that is closely linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Its aim was to combat Irish r ...

(RHC), for a time it described itself as "the only left of centre unionist party" in Northern Ireland, with its main support base in the

loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

communities of Belfast. Since the

Ulster Democratic Party The Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) was a small Ulster loyalism, loyalist political party in Northern Ireland. It was established in June 1981 as the Ulster Loyalist Democratic Party by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), to replace the New Ulst ...

's dissolution in 2001, the PUP has been the sole party in Northern Ireland representing paramilitary loyalism. The PUP has one elected representative on the

Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council is a local authority in Northern Ireland that was established on 1 April 2015. It covers most of the northern coast of Northern Ireland and replaced Ballymoney Borough Council, Coleraine Borough Council, ...

, Russell Watton, the party's current leader.

History

The party was founded by

Hugh Smyth Hugh Smyth OBE (16 March 1939 – 12 May 2014) was a Northern Irish Ulster Loyalist and politician who was leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) from 1979 to 2002, as well as during an interim period in 2011. He was Lord Mayor of B ...

in the mid-1970s as the "Independent Unionist Group" given the dissolution of the 1974 Volunteer Political Party. In 1977, two prominent members of the

Northern Ireland Labour Party The Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) was a political party in Northern Ireland which operated from 1924 until 1987. Origins The roots of the NILP can be traced back to the formation of the Belfast Labour Party in 1892. Previously, in 1885 ...

, David Overend and Jim McDonald, joined. Overend subsequently wrote many of the group's policy documents, incorporating much of the NILP's platform.Aaron Edwards, ''A history of the Northern Ireland Labour Party'', p.219 In 1979, the group was renamed the "Progressive Unionist Party". Their position on the left of the political spectrum differentiates them from other unionist parties (such as the

Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded as the Ulster Unionist Council in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it l ...

and the

Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist, Ulster loyalism, loyalist, British nationalist and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who ...

) which are ideologically right-wing. The party has had a degree of electoral success. In 1994, PUP leader

became

Lord Mayor of Belfast The Lord Mayor of Belfast is the leader and chairperson of Belfast City Council, elected annually from and by the city's 60 councillors. The Lord Mayor also serves as the representative of the city of Belfast, welcoming guests from across the U ...

Northern Ireland Peace Process

In 1995, shortly after the

Combined Loyalist Military Command The Combined Loyalist Military Command is an umbrella body for Ulster loyalism, loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland set up in the early 1990s, recalling the earlier Ulster Army Council and Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Commit ...

announced a ceasefire, former UVF member Billy Hutchinson, who was jailed for the murder of two Catholics in 1974, defined the relationship between the PUP and the UVF: "The relationship is a very strict one in terms of acting as political confidants and providing political analysis for them, but it doesn't go any deeper than that."

Northern Ireland Forum

The PUP participated in elections to the

Northern Ireland Forum The Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue was a body set up in 1996 as part of a process of negotiations that eventually led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The forum was elected, with five members being elected for each List o ...

in May 1996. No constituency candidates were elected, but as one of the tenth best-performing parties on the list vote, they secured two seats, with Smyth and David Ervine both being elected. The PUP supported the

Belfast Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement ( or ; or ) is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April (Good Friday) 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the la ...

1997 general and local elections

The PUP stood candidates for the first time at a general election in

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

: Hugh Smyth in South Antrim, Ervine in Belfast South and Kenny Donaldson in East Antrim. They amassed 10,928 votes, and no seats. The party fared better at the simultaneous local elections, increasing their total number of councillors to seven. Ervine and Hutchinson joined Smyth in Belfast, and gains were made in North Down,

Lisburn Lisburn ( ; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with t ...

and

Newtownabbey Newtownabbey ( ) is a large settlement north of Belfast city centre in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is separated from the rest of the city by Cavehill and Fortwilliam golf course, but it still forms part of the Belfast metropolitan area ...

1998 Northern Ireland Assembly election

Following the signing of the

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement ( or ; or ) is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April (Good Friday) 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the la ...

, elections to the new Northern Ireland Assembly were held, which the PUP contested. Candidates included: Belfast councillors Smyth, Ervine and Billy Hutchinson, who stood in

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

and North Belfast, respectively. They registered 20,634 votes (2.55%), and both Ervine and Hutchinson were elected to the Assembly. Notably, Smyth missed out on getting elected in West Belfast, in which no unionist candidates were returned in that constituency. Incidentally, the Ulster Democratic Party failed to elect any candidates, making the PUP the only loyalist party to win representation in the Assembly.

Post-Good Friday Agreement

1999 European Parliament elections

Ervine was the PUP candidate for the Northern Ireland constituency at the 1999 European elections. He polled 22,494 first-preference votes, and was not elected.

2001 general and local elections

The PUP stood two candidates for the 2001 general election: Ervine in Belfast East, and Dawn Purvis in Belfast South. In total, the party received 4,781 votes (0.6%), and no seats. Ervine was the best-performing candidate out of the two, winning 10% of the vote in Belfast East, and the only one to retain their deposit. The party held four of the seven seats they were defending at the concurrent local elections, but did make a gain in Castlereagh.

Ervine leadership

2003 Assembly election

The PUP put up candidates for the 2003 Assembly election, including both Assembly members and Smyth. Overall, their vote dropped by 1.2% to 8,032 votes, a large decline when compared to their success of over 20,000 votes in 1998. Hutchinson lost his seat, while Ervine held his. With no other candidates elected, this left Ervine as the PUP's only representative in the Assembly.

2005 local elections and subsequent activity

The party had a poor showing at the 2005 local elections, losing half of their seats. This left Ervine and Smyth in Belfast as the only PUP candidates to be returned. Following a loyalist feud between the UVF and

Loyalist Volunteer Force The Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) was an Ulster loyalism, Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed by Billy Wright (loyalist), Billy Wright in 1996 when he and his unit split from the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) a ...

, in which four men were murdered by the UVF in Belfast and recognition of the UVF's ceasefire was withdrawn by the British government, the PUP debated ending its "special relationship" with the UVF. This was defeated in a closed vote at the party's annual conference in October 2005. In March 2006, the Chairwoman of the PUP, Dawn Purvis, a research associate at the

University of Ulster Ulster University (; Ulster Scots: or ), legally the University of Ulster, is a multi-campus public research university located in Northern Ireland. It is often referred to informally and unofficially as Ulster, or by the abbreviation UU. It i ...

, was appointed as an independent member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

Death of David Ervine and Purvis leadership

David Ervine died following a heart attack on 8 January 2007. On 22 January 2007 Dawn Purvis was chosen as party leader. She is the second woman to lead a unionist party in Northern Ireland (after

Anne Dickson Anne Letitia Dickson CBE (born 18 April 1928) is a former Northern Irish Unionist politician. Background Born in London, she moved with her family to Northern Ireland at an early age and was educated at Holywood and Richmond Lodge School.

's short-lived leadership of the

Unionist Party of Northern Ireland The Unionist Party of Northern Ireland was a political party founded by Brian Faulkner in September 1974. Formation The party emerged following splits in the Ulster Unionist Party in 1973 and 1974 over the British government's white paper ''Nor ...

following

Brian Faulkner Arthur Brian Deane Faulkner, Baron Faulkner of Downpatrick, (18 February 1921 – 3 March 1977), was the sixth and last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, from March 1971 until his resignation in March 1972. He was also the Chief Executive ...

's retirement). Dr John Kyle was co-opted on to

Belfast City Council Belfast City Council () is the Local government in Northern Ireland, local authority with responsibility for part of Belfast, the largest city of Northern Ireland. The council serves an estimated population of (), the largest of any district c ...

to fill Ervine's seat.

2007 Assembly election

The PUP fielded three candidates for the 2007 Assembly election: Elaine Martin in North Down, Andrew Park in Belfast South and Dawn Purvis in Belfast East. Overall the party polled 3,822 votes or 0.6% of the votes cast in Northern Ireland, down 0.6% from the elections of 2003. Purvis retained her party's seat in Belfast East, while no other PUP candidates were elected.

2010 resignations and relationship with UVF/RHC

The party did not field any candidates for the 2010 general elections - party members were encouraged to vote for a candidate of their choice. In June 2010, Dawn Purvis resigned as leader, and as a member, of the party because of its relationship with the UVF and a recent murder attributed to that group. John Kyle was subsequently appointed interim leader, following Purvis's resignation. On 28 August 2010 the former deputy leader, David Rose, resigned from the party. He cited the recent murder attributed to the UVF and his belief that the party was "becoming increasingly conservative in outlook. During a meeting in Belfast on 29 September 2010, members of the party agreed to maintain its relationship with the Ulster Volunteer Force and the

. Despite the links with the UVF, Billy Hutchinson acknowledges that most UVF members vote for the larger

2011 local and Assembly elections and Brian Ervine's leadership

Brian Ervine was appointed PUP leader in October 2010. At their manifesto launch for the 2011 Assembly and

local elections Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Bria ...

, the PUP revealed their manifesto pledges, including: a balanced economy, greater integrated education and building a full-size replica of the

RMS Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that Sinking of the Titanic, sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking Iceberg that struck the Titanic, an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York Ci ...

to be docked in Belfast Harbour. Additionally, Ervine announced that he would be standing in Belfast East, and that the party would be running local candidates in

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic territory)Larne/Latharna
Placenames Database of Ireland. is a to ...

, Castlereagh and

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

as well as in Belfast and Antrim. No PUP candidates were elected to the Assembly, leaving the party without representation for the first time since 1998. Ervine himself finished behind Purvis who had run for re-election as an independent. She, too, was not elected. Despite losing their Assembly seat, the PUP did return their two councillors in Belfast. A month after the elections, Ervine announced his resignation as party leader, and later was replaced by veteran west Belfast activist Billy Hutchinson in October 2011.

Hutchinson leadership

Hutchinson succeeded Hugh Smyth on Belfast City Council in January 2014, following the latter's retirement due to ill health.

2014 local elections

The PUP stood candidates for the new 'super councils' at the 2014 local elections, doubling their total number of representatives from two to four. In Belfast, deputy leader John Kyle was re-elected, this time for the Titanic district, while Hutchinson topped the poll in Court. The party were also joined on the council by Julie Anne Corr-Johnston, who regained a seat in Oldpark for the party. On the

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, No ...

candidate, Russell Watton, was the first to be elected in that district. Smyth died during the election campaign.

2016 and 2017 Assembly elections

The PUP stood six candidates at the 2016 Assembly election, but, despite an increase in their overall vote, no candidates were elected. Their support dipped slightly at the snap election in 2017, but did see an increase in their votes in North and East Belfast.

2019 local elections

The party stood candidates at the 2019 local elections, including all four of their incumbent councillors. No further gains were made, with the party only losing their seat in Oldpark.

The Northern Ireland Protocol

Following the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union, the PUP have been protesting against the Northern Ireland Protocol, part of the arrangements to prevent a 'hard border' in the Irish Sea. The party believes that the Protocol inhibits the

Principle of consent Principle of consent is a term used in the context of the Northern Ireland peace process and is one of the key points of the Good Friday Agreement. The principle asserts both the legitimacy of the aspiration to a United Ireland and the legitimac ...

, leading to Hutchinson saying that the PUP no longer support the Good Friday Agreement in November 2021. Conversely, in an interview on BBC's The View programme, John Kyle stated that the Protocol could have "significant advantages" if "fundamental" changes are made. Kyle's remarks sparked outrage among unionists, with the PUP releasing a statement clarifying that the party still remains opposed to the Protocol, and that Kyle was giving a personal view. Kyle subsequently resigned as both deputy leader and a member of the party three weeks later, citing "differing approaches" in regard to the Protocol.

2022 Assembly election

The party stood only three candidates at the 2022 Assembly election, with Hutchinson standing in North Belfast, Russell Watton in East Londonderry and Karl Bennett in East Belfast. No candidates were elected, with the PUP seeing a 52% drop in their support, compared to 2017.

2023 local elections

The PUP had four candidates at the May local elections, with one candidate each across Belfast, Causeway Coast and Glens, Antrim and Newtownabbey and Mid and East Antrim. The party polled 2,103 votes (0.3%) overall, and were wiped out in Belfast, with Hutchinson losing out to the

Traditional Unionist Voice The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. In common with all other Northern Irish unionist parties, the TUV's political programme has as its '' sine qua non'' the preservation of Northern Ireland's pl ...

(TUV). In the Causeway Coast and Glens, Watton retained his seat, making him the sole PUP candidate to be elected. A month after the elections, Hutchinson resigned as leader, with Watton taking over the role.

Notable members

Former UVF member Billy Giles, who spent 14 years in the

Maze Prison HM Prison Maze (previously Long Kesh Detention Centre, and known colloquially as the Maze or H-Blocks) was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from August 1971 to September 2000. On 15 ...

for a sectarian killing, was part of the PUP's negotiating team at the

in April 1998.Taylor, Peter (1999). ''Loyalists''. London: Bloomsbury. p.8 Others involved in this process included

Billy Mitchell William Lendrum Mitchell (December 29, 1879 – February 19, 1936) was a United States Army officer who had a major role in the creation of the United States Air Force. Mitchell served in France during World War I and, by the conflict's end, ...

, David Ervine, Jim McDonald, William 'Billy' Greer, Winston Churchill Rea and William "Plum" Smyth; all former UVF and Red Hand Commando members.

Party leaders

Electoral performance

UK general elections

1997 UK general election

2001 UK general election

Northern Ireland Assembly

Local elections

References

External links

http://www.pupni.com/PUP Manifesto - Assembly Elections 2003 - "How long are you prepared to wait?"
{{Authority control 1979 establishments in Northern Ireland Democratic socialist parties in Europe Political parties established in 1979 Political parties in Northern Ireland Socialist parties in Ireland Socialist parties in the United Kingdom Ulster unionist organisations Ulster Volunteer Force