Traditional Unionist Voice

Traditional Unionist Voice
Abbreviation	TUV
Leader	Jim Allister
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	British unionism[1] Ulster loyalism National conservatism[1] Social conservatism[1] Anti-Good Friday Agreement[2] Hard Euroscepticism[3]
Political position	Right-wing to Far-right [4]
National affiliation	Reform UK
Colours	Blue (primarily), red and white
House of Commons (NI Seats)	0 / 18
NI Assembly	1 / 90
Local government in Northern Ireland[5]	10 / 462
Website
www.tuv.org.uk
Politics of Northern Ireland Political parties Elections

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 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 both 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. The party also holds a small number of seats on local councils. 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 forthcoming UK General Election.^[13]