Update - It is being reported that the UUP Executive has backed the move as outlined below. We will cover the story and bring you reaction here on ToryDiary in the morning
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The Belfast News Letter and BBC Northern Ireland are reporting that tonight the Ulster Unionist Party's executive committee will be meeting to decide on its future relationship with the Conservative Party.
Back in July, UUP leader Sir Reg Empey and David Cameron co-wrote a piece in the Daily Telegraph in which they signalled their desire for closer co-operation between their two parties and discussions have been ongoing ever since as to what form that co-operation will take.
I understand that David Cameron had hoped for a decision to be announced at the Tory conference in Birmingham, but as is ever the case in Northern Ireland politics, negotiations rarely adhere to timetables and so we have been waiting for some time for these talks to come to a conclusion.
The BBC suggests that whilst there will not be a formal merger and the parties will remain separate entities, a new Conservative and Ulster Unionist Joint Committee would be set up so that joint candidates could be fielded for Westminster and European elections. It cites a UUP source as saying that the deal was "95 per cent complete".
Assuming there is not a snap general election in the spring, this would mean that UUP MEP Jim Nicholson would be the first person to seek election under the new arrangement when he stands again for the European Parliament next June.
If a deal is struck, credit will be particularly due on the Tory side to Owen Paterson, the shadow Northern Ireland secretary, who has been assiduously visiting the province on a weekly basis and doing much to bring the parties together.
Jonathan Isaby
Any ideas as to what might hold up such an agreement?
Posted by: Raj | November 20, 2008 at 16:43
Raj, your answer is: Lady Sylvia Hermon MP
Posted by: Westminster Wolf | November 20, 2008 at 16:51
What, is she against this? I was thinking more of parts of the agreement rather than people who would oppose it. The articles have mentioned that there is 95% agreement, so I wondered what the disputed 5% might be.
Posted by: Raj | November 20, 2008 at 17:00
Good news and lets hope that this works out. It is surely in the interests of Northern Ireland to ensure that a moderate Unionist voice emerges to rival the DUP and it will be good for our Party to expand its reach.
Jim Nicholson, who is a good man, has been voting with the British Conservative MEPs for years and it is right and proper that he is supported in retaining his seat in Brussels.
Posted by: Duncan Flynn | November 20, 2008 at 17:43
How will this be read? I read it from Anglo-Irish ancestry and knowing both the Sash and the Armoured Cars and Tanks and Guns and relatives forced to leave for doing a Romeo and Juliet in the early 1920s.
Stormont is stalled, Paisley has gone but Adams and McGuiness remain and it perplexes me as to how a future Conservative and Unionist party government can maintain any semblance of neutrality if our colours are, in perception if not in black and tan, hoisted to the Red Hand.
Yes, the Conservative and Unionist party was a reaction to Gladstone and the Irish question but the post-Troubles era, a hundred years on from that, should still very much be about reconciliation rather than alignment and the potential alienation of the Nationalist minority. Not just in NI but very much so in Scotland and points beyond.
Posted by: Dorian the Irisho-Englandism | November 20, 2008 at 17:50
Lady Hermon should join the party that she supports in 95% of the parliamentary divisions; the Labour Party!
Posted by: Justin Hinchcliffe | November 20, 2008 at 18:11
I agree with Justin Hinchcliffe. (Falls over and faints)
Posted by: Eurorealist | November 20, 2008 at 18:18
Justin,
If Lady Hermon has decided that she is willing to take the Tory whip after the next election and support the Conservative & Unionist organisation, we should take her at her word.
After all, we have a number of our other candidates with past memberships and commitments to other political parties.
Posted by: Glyn | November 20, 2008 at 18:24
Good news indeed, it can only be of benefit to both sides.
Posted by: Will S | November 20, 2008 at 18:49
As the ban on foreign political donations applies only to Great Britain so that the Sinners can continue to be funded from abroad, will the Tories now also be able to funnel cash from Colombian narcoterrorists if they hook up with the UUP?
Posted by: Martin Keegan | November 20, 2008 at 19:02
As the ban on foreign political donations applies only to Great Britain so that the Sinners can continue to be funded from abroad, will the Tories now also be able to funnel cash from Colombian narcoterrorists if they hook up with the UUP?
Posted by: Martin Keegan | November 20, 2008 at 19:02
Wrong party, sonny, have a chat with The Business Secretary, (unelected)has a good Russian link to this scenario, so he does!
Posted by: m dowding | November 20, 2008 at 23:13
Good news, hopefully SDLP and Labour and Alliance and Lib Dems will do same sort of thing....
Posted by: Comstock | November 21, 2008 at 00:16
I was at the meeting. The only person not to vote for it didn't vote. There were no votes against.
The Ulster Unionist Party will move forward with on voice with the Conservatives.
Posted by: Michael Shilliday | November 21, 2008 at 00:27
Such a pity the lib Dems don't stand in northern island. Should do. The ulster unionists only have 1 seat so not much of a pact.
Posted by: Gloy Plopwell (Horbsey and Wood Green) | November 21, 2008 at 00:51
Will the DUP form an alliance with UKIP?
Posted by: Eurorealist | November 21, 2008 at 00:52
Great news.
Posted by: Graeme Archer | November 21, 2008 at 07:16
This is as exciting as a merger between GM and Chrysler.
I don't think you'll see UKIP Toyota tie up with the DUP.
Seriously, it is a shame for Ulster as the province desperately needs a tax cutting agenda. Corporation tax in the republic is 12.5%, in the economically devastated north it is 30% - meaning that they can't move forward.
David Cameron and his snooty pals have less than zero to offer them. In fact, they will continue to drive them backwards at a rate of knots and will tax us into poverty to pay for it. Sorry to be negative.
Posted by: Henry Mayhew - ukipper | November 21, 2008 at 07:53
This is great. A bit sad that it obviously means the end of the UUP - they will have no MPs and MEPS in future so merger is inevitable - but anything that 'normailsies' politics in Ulster should be welcomed
Posted by: Ulster Tory | November 21, 2008 at 08:20
Anything that normalises the Norn Iron scene is to be welcomed indeed. I do hope that the other mainland parties now consider standing in full, or in partnership, with sister parties in the province. The new electoral rules (as they are of this minute, we know how they like to change under Labour) allow joint-candidatures now under a single joint-ticket name.
A good news story, another step in the right direction for politics in the United Kingdom.
Posted by: Liam in Preston | November 21, 2008 at 08:47
My my Ulster Tory, so niaeve. In Northern Ireland we have more members than you have voters. So it's pretty unlikely we're at the end of the line.
Posted by: Michael Shilliday | November 21, 2008 at 10:15
I can remember when the name of the Party was "Conservative and Unionist Party" and 11 out of the 12 Ulster MPs that there were in those days could be counted on to take the Conservative Whip in the Commons. This alas died with the Sunningdale Agreement in the early 1970s. Those votes could have changed the day in February 1974 and kept Labour out.
I fear the old Ulster Unionist Party of such great names as O'Neil, Chichester-Clark, Faulkner, John Taylor (Baron Kilclooney) etc is almost wiped off the Electoral map of Ulster by Rev Ian Paisley's DUP. An alliance with the UUP will avail us little except perhaps a trip down Memory Lane for those of my age and older.
Now had the news been of an Electoral Pact with the DUP, that would have been sensational!
Posted by: Steve Foley | November 21, 2008 at 11:46