Can anything or anyone save the Ulster Unionists? No party in the United Kingdom has suffered quite so precipitous a fall this century. Though older than Northern Ireland itself – and having led its governments for more than half of its 98 years of existence – it is increasingly difficult to imagine the UUP, punished by much of its electorate for its role in delivering the Good Friday Agreement and long supplanted by the Democratic Unionist Party, playing anything more than a marginal role in its political future.
The UUP enters this election with no MPs, having lost the two it regained in 2015 at the last election. It is now only the fourth-biggest party in the mothballed Stormont Assembly. In May it lost its seat in the European Parliament – a berth as old as the institution itself – replaced by an Alliance Party, which looks more and more like the happiest home for voters of a liberal unionist disposition. Earlier this month, Steve Aiken, a former Royal Navy submarine commander, became its third leader in as many years. The 57-year-old was elected unopposed.
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