Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Jon Burrows has warned that any future collapses of the Stormont Assembly could “potentially gift wrap the union to Sinn Féin”.
The former senior police officer made the remarks as he addressed his first party conference as leader, held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in south Belfast.
Conference Address
He was cheered and clapped by the party faithful as he entered the ballroom to the song Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen. Under a banner of “Stronger Together”, Mr Burrows expressed his love for Northern Ireland and said he believes it is stronger as part of the United Kingdom.
He called for the case for the Union to be made “clearly, confidently and in practical terms” and repeated his challenge to Sinn Féin vice president Michelle O’Neill to a head-to-head debate on Northern Ireland’s future.
“This is not about entering the discussion on a ‘New Ireland’, it is about fact-checking myths with cold, hard facts,” he added.
Warnings on Stormont
Mr Burrows also paid tribute to the bravery of the victims of former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson for coming forward. Addressing issues he said have harmed unionism, he listed the reduction in the number of MLAs from 108 to 90, disproportionately affecting unionism, as well as “botched Brexit negotiations” and the collapses of Stormont as well as “short-term thinking”.
Following two significant collapses of powersharing government at Stormont in the last decade, Mr Burrows cautioned against any further.
“Stormont is not perfect and it needs fixed, but collapsing it would be one of the most destructive things unionists could do,” he said.
“I’ve heard talk of gift wrapping seats to Sinn Féin, collapsing Stormont could gift wrap the union potentially to Sinn Féin. It would allow them to call us a failed statelet, it would hand all power to London, it would almost certainly give Dublin a greater consultative role.
“What kind of strategy is this for unionism.”
Appeal to Alliance Voters
Mr Burrows went on to hail a “growth strategy” for unionism and made a direct appeal for unionists to “come home to the UUP”. This included a “direct plea to those who lent Alliance their vote”, claiming Alliance is “drifting towards outright nationalism”.
“They vote with Sinn Féin more often than any other party in Stormont – even the SDLP,” he said.
Mr Burrows went on to contend that Alliance has “failed victims and failed farmers” through its Justice Minister Naomi Long and Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Minister Andrew Muir.
“They have failed the basic test of competence, and they hide it behind permanent outrage,” he said, and also claimed their private members’ Bills are “dangerous”.
He said Eóin Tennyson’s Bill aimed at banning gender or sexuality conversion practices in Northern Ireland was “so badly drafted that parents would need a KC at the kitchen table to have decent conversations with a young person about sensitive issues that they face”.
He said Paula Bradshaw’s flags and emblems Bill was “dangerously naive” and gave risk to those who work for the Department for Infrastructure to do their job safely.
“The leadership of our justice system by Naomi Long has catastrophic, sentencing is too soft, bail is granted too easily, the slow pace puts off victims of sexual and domestic violence,” he said.
“The entire balance of rights is out of kilter. Police officers, we’re told, are too frightened to protect themselves for fear of being disciplined; prison officers breathe in inmates’ second-hand smoke because we are the only part of the UK where smoking in prisons has not been banned – the rights of the inmate seem to trump the rights of the prison officer.”
He added: “Is there a farmer in the land who has confidence in Andrew Muir,” to some shouts of “no” from the audience.
“I say to those who voted Alliance, if you want to support a party that believes in the whole of Northern Ireland, but that has competence and common sense, come home to the Ulster Unionist Party.”
