Northern Ireland Unionist Party

The NIUP was formed in January 1999 after an internal dispute over policy within the United Kingdom Unionist Party (UKUP). As a result four of the then five UKUP Assembly members left and set up the NIUP. The NIUP was launched by former Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) activist and UKUP co-founder Cedric Wilson (leader) and consisted initially of himself and three other Northern Ireland Assembly members elected for other parties, namely Paddy Roche (deputy leader), Norman Boyd, and Roger Hutchinson, with Clifford Smith as party secretary. Hutchinson was expelled from the grouping in December 1999 upon accepting membership of two Assembly committees, which Wilson and the others had decided to refuse; thereafter Hutchinson sat as an Independent Unionist. The NIUP was strongly opposed to the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) and contested the elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly in November 2003 but failed to have any of its candidates elected.