The DUP is the biggest Unionist party in Northern Ireland at the minute, currently holding the Deputy First Minister and Education post — or at least when the Assembly is actually sitting. Their voter base is considered to be more strong Loyalist than soft Unionist, but that’s just the start.
In this blog, I am going to outline the key details you need to know about the DUP if you’re planning to vote for them in an election, and the values their members and voters generally believe in.
The Democratic Unionist Party was founded by the late Ian Paisley in 1971 — an Evangelical Christian, who — prior to going into politics, was a minister. For this reason, a percentage of the party’s MLAs, MPs and electorate are Evangelical Christians, which has become a problem in politics within recent years (there are also people in the party who would say they are moderate, but Evangelical beliefs are still a large part of their messages).
They are also — as the party’s full name suggests — Pro Union.
However, if you’re more interested in what they have supported in the near past and closer to the modern day, they were the only main political party in Northern Ireland that supported voting for Brexit, also known as the 2016 referendum that was held in which UK citizens were asked whether or not they wanted the UK to leave the European Union or not, which ultimately resulted in a Yes vote.
In the direct aftermath of the referendum, they didn’t have a large amount of importance beyond Northern Ireland, where they were getting used to arguing with Remainer parties who voted the opposite way. However, their luck then changed nearly a year later, after the General Election that was meant to increase Theresa May’s Conservative majority resulted in a hung parliament, with the Conservatives only winning 318 seats (in the UK, you need 326 MPs to reach a simple majority).
As a result, 10 DUP MPs were then chosen to prop up the government — not that they made the then Prime Minister’s life easy.
You see, by this point, Article 50 had already been triggered — marking the two-year countdown by which point the UK was meant to leave the EU by 11pm on 29th March 2019. But with this came A LOT of discussions, mixed with — according to many — a lack of planning, which became even clearer once Theresa May showed off her Withdrawal Agreement to the Commons.
There were a lot of reasons parties across the Commons gave for voting against Theresa May’s withdrawal Agreement, but the DUP’s excuse for voting against it was because it included a supposed security guarantee called the Northern Ireland Backstop, which Unionist parties viewed as a likelihood that Northern Ireland could be treated differently than the rest of the UK. Saying that, they were saying that at a time when the rest of the UK had made Gay Marriage legal and had reforms that allowed women to access Abortion services, which some would say may be slightly hypocritical.
Nevertheless, all of Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreements were rejected, and by the time she resigned in May 2019, the DUP had decided to hold all their hope on Boris Johnson, who according to their members, they could of course “trust”.
Originally a “Pro Union” candidate, Boris Johnson ran on a mandate to “Get Brexit Done”, and as soon as he succeeded on getting into office, he started doing just that. After renegotiating the original Withdrawal Agreement and offering it to the EU, the DUP originally endorsed Johnson’s offer on the 2nd of October 2019, before announcing on the 17th of the same month that they planned to vote against it. When the vote on the Withdrawal Agreement eventually went to Parliament, the DUP voted against the Trade Deal, but it ended up passing anyway in December 2020, effectively delivering what is known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, or — explained simply for anyone who doesn’t follow UK politics — a border down the Irish Sea.
Ever since, the DUP and many of its supporters have been fighting to get the Northern Ireland Protocol replaced, but disagreements still exist amongst the party about what type of Brexit deal should be chosen to replace it.
But panicking after originally endorsing Johnson’s Brexit deal isn’t the end of the DUP u-turning on itself, because the lines that came out of their mouths got even more interesting one year into the couple of years we had to isolate ourselves during Covid.
Despite being firmly against the Protocol, the DUP started 2021 by trying to make the best of it. The then leader, Arlene Foster (DUP leader 2016-2021), even made a controversial appearance on The Late, Late Show on RTÉ, where she emphasised that, despite having left, the UK and the EU are still friends, and should work together. But within two months of the interview happening, there were calls for Arlene Foster to resign. Then on the evening of 28th April 2021, Arlene Foster announced her resignation.
Since then, the DUP have found themselves tangled up in a mix of leadership crises, that has seen them going from having one leader to four over the last five years (a milestone which has only been held before by their once big but from 2005 little brother, the UUP), starting with Edwin Poots — a Hard Line Unionist who was Arlene’s original replacement — but only lasted 21 days.
After Edwin Poots stepped down, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson became the next Leader, but he has since turned into a very controversial figure — not only because he collapsed Stormont in protest over the NI Protocol, said he wouldn’t return to Stormont until the Protocol didn’t exist and later restored Stormont without all Unionist concerns being sorted, but also because he’s been accused of sexual assault, alongside his wife, which he then had to resign for.
Which leaves us where we are now, with Gavin Robinson being the current leader of the DUP, Michelle McIlveen as the Deputy-Leader, and Emma Little-Pengelly as the Deputy First Minister.
So to summarise what the DUP is:
But nevertheless, their main focus is on politics in Northern Ireland, so it’s up to the public to decide.
Sources:
Paisley, Ian (Dictionary of Irish Biography): https://www.dib.ie/biography/paisley-ian-a10164
Ian Paisley first Minister of Northern Ireland: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ian-Paisley
Brexit: DUP Endorses Johnson’s Offer to European Union: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-49910285
DUP Says it Cannot Support Boris Johnson’s Brexit Deal: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/17/dup-boris-johnson-brexit-deal
DUP MPs to Vote Against Boris Johnson’s Post-Brexit Trade Deal: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-49910285
Arlene Foster, First Minister of Northern Ireland | The Late, Late Show | RTÉ One: https://youtu.be/NncuM5XAGfU
Arlene Foster Announces Resignation as DUP Leader and NI First Minister: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56910045
DUP Leadership Vote to Take Place on 14 May: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56973796
Edwin Poots Elected DUP Leader to Succeed Arlene Foster: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/14/edwin-poots-elected-dup-leader-to-succeed-arlene-foster
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson Ratified as DUP Leader by Party Executive: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jun/30/sir-jeffrey-donaldson-ratified-as-dup-leader-by-party-executivehttps://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jun/30/sir-jeffrey-donaldson-ratified-as-dup-leader-by-party-executive
Northern Irish Devolution Collapses Again: https://www.economist.com/britain/2022/02/12/northern-irish-devolution-collapses-again
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