Traditional Unionist Voice | |
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Abbreviation | TUV |
Leader | Jim Allister MP |
Chairman | Keith Ratcliffe |
President | William Ross |
Deputy Leader | Ron McDowell |
Founded | 7 December 2007 |
Split from | Democratic Unionist Party |
Headquarters | 38 Henry Street, Ballymena, Northern Ireland |
Ideology | |
Political position | Right wing[4] |
National affiliation | Reform UK–TUV alliance |
Colours | Blue (primarily), red and white |
House of Commons (NI Seats) | 1 / 18 |
NI Assembly | 1 / 90 |
Local government in Northern Ireland[5] | 10 / 462 |
Website | |
www | |
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 place within the United Kingdom. A founding precept of the party is that "nothing which is morally wrong can be politically right".[6]
The TUV was formed in December 2007 by Jim Allister after he and others had resigned from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in March of that year.[7] At the time of his resignation, Allister was a prominent figure in the DUP and held the position of Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the party having been elected to the European Parliament in 2004. The reason for the split was DUP leader Ian Paisley's March 2007 consent to the St Andrews Agreement and his willingness to become First Minister of Northern Ireland alongside a deputy First Minister from the Irish Republican party Sinn Féin.[8]
Prior to the St Andrews Agreement, the DUP had presented itself as an 'anti-Agreement' unionist party[9] opposed to numerous aspects of the Good Friday Agreement, e.g., the release of paramilitary prisoners before the end of their jail sentences, and the participation of Sinn Féin in the Northern Ireland government without complete decommissioning of Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) weapons and cessation of all IRA activity. The TUV has been an exception among Northern Irish unionist parties in consistently opposing the presence of Sinn Féin in the Northern Ireland government.[10] After Allister's resignation from the DUP, he continued to occupy his European Parliament seat, sitting as an Independent MEP until the following European election in 2009 when he was not re-elected.
In terms of electoral success and financial income,[11] Traditional Unionist Voice is the third largest unionist party in Northern Ireland, behind the Democratic Unionist Party and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). It is usually considered by political commentators to be a small party and characterised as being more hardline than other Northern Irish unionist parties.[12]
Since 2011, the TUV has occupied one seat in the Northern Ireland Assembly. In 2024, they won their first seat in the United Kingdom House of Commons.[13] The party also holds a few seats on local councils in Northern Ireland. Its most prominent elected representative and best-known figure remains Jim Allister whose North Antrim constituency is the heartland of the party.
Since 2008, the party president has been former East Londonderry Westminster MP William Ross.
In March 2024, the party formed an electoral pact with Reform UK, stating that the two parties would stand mutually agreed candidates in Northern Ireland constituencies in the 2024 United Kingdom general election.[14] In this election, the party won its first Westminster Member of Parliament (MP), electing Jim Allister as MP for North Antrim.
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