UUP’s newest MLA carries on tradition of men in uniform

Jon Burrows is the newest Stormont MLA for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), but he is not the only former police officer the party has tried to attract recently.

BBC News NI understands the party approached Jim Gamble, the former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command Centre in the United Kingdom, to be its North Down candidate in the Westminster election in July 2024.

He immediately turned down the offer.

Mr Gamble declined to comment when approached by the BBC.

Instead, the party went for the former Army officer Colonel Tim Collins, who failed to win the seat.

He notoriously told the BBC at the election count that the people of North Down “don’t want someone who doesn’t live in Northern Ireland”.

“They’re interested in local politics,” he added.

“They’re not interested in cutting VAT, they’re not interested in international affairs.

“They’re interested in potholes and hedges.”

He had already complained during the campaign that he could insure his Rolls Royce in England, where he lived, for what it costs to insure a Ford Fiesta in north Down.

But the recruitment of Jon Burrows to replace Colin Crawford, who lasted less than a year in the North Antrim Stormont seat, carries on a tradition within the UUP of seeking to attract oven-ready high(ish) profile representatives who are no strangers to uniforms.

Three of the past four leaders of the UUP have been:

• Steve Aiken, a former Royal Navy submarine commander
• Doug Beattie, a former Royal Irish Regiment officer well known for his service in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Mike Nesbitt, a former TV news presenter

In addition, one of its nine current assembly members, Andy Allen, was seriously injured while serving in the Army in Afghanistan.

Deputy leader Robbie Butler is a former firefighter.

The policy of bringing in high profile people from other walks of life is not entirely unique to the UUP.

For example, Sinn Féin now has an MP, Pat Cullen, better known for her role as boss of a UK-wide nursing trade union.

But the UUP unarguably is way out in front for bringing in candidates already well known in other fields.

So why?

“There is something that attracts seniority to the UUP,” says former party staffer Michael Shilliday.

“In the old days that was just “big house unionism”.

“Maybe it’s still that.

“But really it is what the ‘decent people’ shtick from 2005 was all about.

“That’s why these people see themselves reflected in the UUP.”

That is a reference to a disastrous 2005 general election campaign slogan: “Decent People Vote Ulster Unionist”.

I remember being in the BBC office in Stormont one morning when the party press officer walked in introducing a man he said was a former Royal Navy submarine commander.

In what seemed like no time at all, Steve Aiken, to use the hackneyed line, went from the command of one sinking ship to another.

When he stepped down, he was replaced by Doug Beattie who promised a “union of people”, before things soured.

Overseeing the latest changes is Mike Nesbitt, another man who had no grounding in elected politics when he swapped his news anchor role at UTV for an even hotter seat at Stormont.

After quitting the leadership the first time, following a disappointing assembly election, he is back.

Partly because there was no other obvious candidate and partly because he represented the best chance of salvation for a party which is rapidly using up its quota of last chances.

According to former UUP director of communications Alex Kane “it’s a hangover from the 1920s when the Ulster Unionists saw themselves as the party of service”.

“They still do,” he adds.

“Service to the people, service to the country and for them that is represented by a uniform.

“In a way, Mike Nesbitt is the same.

“He was seen in people’s living rooms on television each night and that is a form of service too.

“The problem is times have changed.”

But it also reflects a lack of candidates from those already within the ranks who have the track record necessary to win elections and that, long-term, is a problem for the once mighty party of unionism.