Basil McCrea

Basil McCrea MLA (born 13 November 1959) is a unionist politician in Northern Ireland. He was elected in 2007 to the Northern Ireland Assembly as a Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) member for Lagan Valley. He unsuccessfully contested the 2005 UK General Election in Lagan Valley for the UUP. He is a UUP Councillor on Lisburn City Council and was, until his election to the Assembly, a Party Officer and spokesman for the Northern Ireland Manufacturers' Focus Group.^[1] He is currently a member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board and UUP spokesman on Education. He was also a member of the Committee shadowing the Department for Employment and Learning but had to leave this committee due to overload of work.

He stood for leader of the Ulster Unionist Party against Tom Elliott in the contest after the UK 2010 General Election. He was widely seen as the candidate of the UUP's "liberal" wing, while Elliott was seen as the candidate of the "conservative" wing. He lost the election by 643 votes to 296.

McCrea was educated at Belfast Royal Academy before attaining a Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Birmingham. He later attained a degree in Advanced Computer Technology from the University of Ulster.^[2]

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