Robert McCartney (politician)
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| Robert McCartney QC | |
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UKUP Leader
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| Born | April 24, 1936 (age 70) Belfast, Northern Ireland |
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| Political party | UK Unionist Party |
Robert Law McCartney QC (born 24 April 1936) often known as Bob, is a Northern Ireland Barrister, unionist politician, and leader of the UK Unionist Party, and was previously the only UKUP member of the currently suspended Northern Ireland Assembly.
He should not be confused with the Robert McCartney who was murdered in January of 2005.
He was initially a member of the Ulster Unionist Party but split from them in 1987 when he refused to withdraw from the general election of that year and instead stood against another Unionist politician. He ran as a "Real Unionist" but failed to win a seat. In the 1995 by-election in North Down he was successfully elected as a "UK Unionist" and he subsequently established his party further in preparation for elections to the Northern Ireland peace talks.
He retained his seat in the 1997 election, but lost it in the 2001 election to the UUP candidate Sylvia Hermon. In 1999 McCartney ran for the party in elections to the European Parliament, winning 2.9% of the first preference vote.
He is committed to a policy of integration for Northern Ireland, whereby all political and administrative forms of devolution would be wound up, there would be no Northern Ireland wide legislative and administrative assembly and the province would be a fully-integrated part of the United Kingdom. This proposal, once popular in some sections of Unionism, has increasingly receded and with the recent introduction of devolution to Scotland and Wales, as well as proposals for English regional assemblies such a proposal seems increasingly unviable.
McCartney also strongly opposes the St Andrews Agreement. He stood in 6 different constituencies in the 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly elections on an anti-agreement ticket but was elected to none of them.[1]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by James Kilfedder |
Member of Parliament for North Down 1995–2001 |
Succeeded by Sylvia Hermon |
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| Preceded by (newly created position) |
Leader of the United Kingdom Unionist Party 1995 – present |
Incumbent |
Categories: 1936 births | Living people | Leaders of political parties in Northern Ireland | Members of the United Kingdom Parliament from Northern Ireland constituencies | UK MPs 1992-1997 | UK MPs 1997-2001 | UK Unionist Party politicians | Ulster Unionist Party politicians | Northern Ireland MPAs 1982-1986 | Members of the Northern Ireland Forum | Northern Ireland MLAs 1998-2003 | Northern Ireland MLAs 2003-2007 | Northern Irish barristers
