Northern Ireland’s Minister for Health, Mike Nesbitt has emerged as the front-runner to succeed Doug Beattie as the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).
Mr Beattie stood down unexpectedly earlier this month, citing “irreconcilable differences between myself and party officers combined with the inability to influence and shape the party going forward”.
On Tuesday the UUP’s deputy leader, the Lagan Valley MLA Robbie Butler, announced he was not standing for the leadership and gave his backing to Mr Nesbitt.
The MLA for Strangford, Mr Nesbitt previously led the party between 2012 and 2017 and, if selected, would become the first UUP leader to hold the position a second time.
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“The future of the Ulster Unionist Party, and indeed wider political unionism in Northern Ireland, must always be foremost when considering change and the role that we all will play,” Mr Butler said in a statement.
“A revised and refreshed leadership team of the UUP, led by Mike Nesbitt, is an exciting opportunity to not only embed the vision of a modern, ambitious and vibrant strand of unionism for the people of Northern Ireland but also to strategically modernise party structures with and for our membership.
“Working together we can revitalise both party and politics, but of greater importance is to ensure that pro-Union, persuadable and the silent non-voters have a home that reflects and embodies their vision for a prosperous future for all.”
Nominations for the position of leader opened last week and will close at 4.30pm on August 30th. An extraordinary general meeting will be held on September 14th to ratify or elect the new leader.
No candidate has yet declared an intention to run for the leadership, but it is understood Mr Nesbitt has been encouraged to put his name forward by a wide variety of elected and non-elected members and is the only one of the party’s nine MLAs who intends to do so.
According to the UUP’s rules, any party member who receives the signature of 30 colleagues from nine constituency associations can contest the role.
Mr Beattie, who stood down as UUP leader earlier this month, was elected unopposed in 2021.
A decorated army veteran turned MLA for Upper Bann, he sought to revive the party’s fortunes with a liberal brand of unionism which he hoped would both distinguish it from the DUP and win back former unionist voters who had switched to Alliance.
He was embroiled in controversy in 2022 after a series of derogatory social media posts, written while he was still serving in the army, came to light, but apologised and survived as leader with his party’s backing.
Under his watch the party had its most successful electoral showing in recent years, winning its first seat at Westminster since 2017 in the July general election.
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