Jim Allister

James Hugh Allister Template:Post-nominals (born 2 April 1953) is a Northern Irish unionist politician and barrister who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for North Antrim since the 2024 general election. He founded the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) in 2007 and has led the party since its formation. Prior to his election to Westminster, Allister was a member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for North Antrim, having been first elected in the 2011 Assembly election.

Allister had been a member of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) since its foundation in 1971, and for which he successfully stood for election in the 2004 European Parliament election for Northern Ireland, succeeding Ian Paisley. He continued as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) following his resignation from the DUP and establishment of the TUV, serving until 2009.

Early life and education

Jim Allister was born on 2 April 1953<ref name="BBC2024">Template:Cite news</ref> in Listooder, near Crossgar in County Down, where he lived until he was nine, when his family moved to Craigantlet, just outside Newtownards. His parents, Robert Allister and Mary Jane Allister (Template:Nee),<ref name="WW">Template:Who's Who</ref> were Protestants from County Monaghan; Robert (1911–1998) was from the townland of Leagh, just south of Monaghan.<ref name="Telegraph 1">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Telegraph 2">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Ancestry.co.uk: Robert Allister (1911-1998). https://www.ancestry.co.uk/genealogy/records/robert-allister-24-19m5bkj?geo_a=r&o_iid=41013&o_lid=41013&o_sch=Web+Property</ref><ref>Townlands.ie: Leagh Townland, Co. Monaghan. https://www.townlands.ie/monaghan/monaghan/monaghan/monaghan-rural/leagh/</ref> They had moved northeast to County Down from County Monaghan in 1949 or 1950.<ref name="Telegraph 1"/><ref name="Telegraph 2"/>

Allister was a pupil at Barnamaghery Primary School and later Dundonald Primary School when he moved house.<ref name="Allister personal interview">Template:Cite news</ref> After attending Regent House Grammar School in Newtownards, Allister graduated from Queen's University Belfast with a Bachelor of Laws degree with honours in constitutional law. In 1974, he unsuccessfully stood for the post of president of Queen's University Belfast Students' Union.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Student activist

Allister quit the Official Unionist Party (OUP) to join the DUP at its founding in 1971.<ref name="btnb83">"No brotherly love as rivals battle it out in East Antrim", Belfast Telegraph, 3 June 1983.</ref> In June 1972, as chairman of the Queen's University Democratic Unionist Party Association, Allister wrote a letter published in the Belfast Telegraph arguing that Ian Paisley was closely aligned with Enoch Powell's "integrationist" stance that Northern Ireland should be closer to the rest of the United Kingdom, and that other unionist leaders were in favour of devolution.<ref>"Powell and Paisley Agree", Belfast Telegraph, 24 June 1972.</ref> In March 1973 Allister was elected to the post of publicity officer for the Queen's DUP Association.<ref>"Association Officers", Belfast Telegraph, 19 March 1973.</ref> He was involved in the 1974 Ulster Workers' Council strike against the Sunningdale Agreement, which had been signed the previous December. A senior loyalist politician recalled walking into the Ulster Workers' Council HQ on Hawthornden Road in Belfast to find Allister and Peter Robinson "giggling" while phoning Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) headquarters claiming to be Catholics in distress in a loyalist area afflicted by the strike and asking the SDLP to send a car to rescue them.<ref>"True Blue Peter: Profile Peter Robinson ", Sunday Tribune, 9 March 1986.</ref> He served as a European Parliament assistant to Ian Paisley from 1980 to 1982.

Elected politician

In 1982 he was elected as a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont for North Antrim and served as the DUP assembly chief whip. In 1983 Allister stated that if the DUP were faced with a choice between no devolved government and a power-sharing government with the SDLP or other nationalist representatives, his party would opt for not having a devolved government.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He was also the vice-chairman of Scrutiny Committee of Department of Finance and Personnel from October 1982 to June 1986. Outside the Stormont Assembly, he was a member of Newtownabbey Borough Council from 1985 to 1987. In 1983, he stood as a DUP candidate in the Westminster election for East Antrim. However, he narrowly<ref>Sunday Life, 5 April 1992.</ref> lost to Roy Beggs following a bitter campaign in which he denounced Beggs as a "political gypsy" for leaving the DUP and joining the OUP; Beggs had resigned from the DUP after leading a Larne council delegation to Dún Laoghaire in the Republic of Ireland.<ref name="btnb83"/>

In July 1984, Allister gave a speech at the unveiling of a loyalist mural in a housing estate in the Ballykeel area of Ballymena, County Antrim. Speaking to a crowd of assembled loyalists in Orkney Drive, Allister said; "There are those in this estate who do not like the red, white and blue. To those people and to everyone else who would betray us, the Ulster Loyalists say: 'No surrender'." Later, a crowd gathered outside the home of a Catholic family who lived in Orkney Drive, a married couple with six children, and pelted the house with stones, smashing windows and damaging the family car. The father, Ivan Smith, was also reportedly punched and kicked.<ref name="IP1337"/> The Smith family, who had lived in the area for thirteen years, fled shortly afterwards and were later rehoused.<ref name="IP1337">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>"Intimidation follows speech", The Irish Times, July 12, 1984.</ref>

In August 1985, Allister attended the first major meeting of the United Ulster Loyalist Front (UULF) in Portadown. The UULF had originally formed as a committee earlier that year to oppose police plans to reroute traditional Orange Order parades away from nationalist areas of Portadown. The UULF was supported by the paramilitary organisation the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) with South Belfast Brigade chief and UDA deputy leader John McMichael being appointed to the coordinating committee. Unionists blamed the Irish government for loyalist parades being rerouted from predominantly Catholic areas and the UULF's stated purpose was to oppose further perceived interference from Dublin, although the group's secretary told the press ahead of the meeting that "[he] would not expect paramilitary action to be decided tonight".<ref>"New loyalist group silent over tactics", Belfast Telegraph, August 7, 1985.</ref>

Politics after Anglo-Irish Agreement

Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in November 1985 by the Thatcher and FitzGerald governments, he was a high-profile<ref name="II10J86">"The Paisley heirs apparent", Irish Independent, June 10, 1986.</ref> opponent of the treaty. He was a member of the Joint Unionist Working Party, a body set up by his party and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) to oversee the unionist campaign against the agreement. During the one-day loyalist strike against the agreement in March 1986 it was reportedly difficult for journalists to move around the "loyalist stronghold" of Larne without the permission of Allister.<ref name="II10J86"/> He was also very vocal in his criticism of Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) chief constable John Hermon; the Irish Independent wrote in June 1986 that most of the statements sent by Allister with regards to the chief constable could not be printed "having regards to the law of defamation and libel". In May 1986 Allister led thirteen other DUP politicians in an occupation of the telephone exchange at Parliament Buildings at Stormont and blocked calls from going through to government departments. The siege ended after the RUC used a sledgehammer to breach the barricaded door.<ref>"Sledgehammer end to protest by DUP", Irish Independent, May 16, 1986.</ref> Allister and then DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson held a press conference in September that year threatening to declare Northern Ireland independent from the United Kingdom if the Anglo-Irish Agreement wasn't withdrawn.<ref name="9iu86">Template:Cite web</ref> In November 1986 the SDLP called for Allister and other unionist politicians to be prosecuted for incitement following a "violent" speech at a DUP demonstration in Carrickfergus, afterwards the crowd had attacked Catholic property resulting in the death of an elderly Catholic woman.<ref>"North counts the cost of violence", Evening Herald, November 17, 1986.</ref>

That same month Allister organised a rally inaugurating the Ballymena battalion of a new loyalist paramilitary group, Ulster Resistance.<ref name="21iu86">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="BT211186"/> Allister, DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson, and Ulster Clubs chairman Alan Wright led hundreds of loyalists, many wearing paramilitary uniforms and some wearing masks, parading in a show of strength that culminated at Ballymena Town Hall, where DUP leader Ian Paisley was waiting. Inside Paisley donned a red Ulster Resistance beret on stage, daring the RUC to arrest him while Allister pledged his "personal support" to Ulster Resistance.<ref name="BNL211186">"Loyalists On March", Belfast News Letter, November 21, 1986.</ref><ref name="BT211186"/>

Allister claimed that the RUC had erected a "ring of steel" around the town in an attempt to prevent them from marching to the site of the meeting; he was cheered when he informed the gathered crowd that the colour party had instead entered the town through adjoining fields.<ref name="BT211186">"Anti-pact colour party foiled check, says DUP man", Belfast Telegraph, November 21, 1986.</ref> The RUC denied any undue holdups and stated no arrests were made. When questioned by the press Allister declined to say how many were in attendance but claimed that Ulster Resistance rallies seemed to grow in size every night, declaring:

His departure from active politics in June 1987 followed a reported disagreement with Paisley over a voting pact with James Molyneaux's UUP.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The situation resembled fellow unionist politician and barrister Robert McCartney's in the North Down constituency. McCartney was expelled from the UUP around the same time for not accepting the policy of the leadership.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Legal career

Allister was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland as a barrister in 1976, specialising in criminal law. In 2001, he was called to the Inner Bar as Queen's Counsel.<ref name="Allister personal interview" /><ref>Template:Belfast Gazette</ref><ref name="AllisterBar">Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2003, he represented Loyalist Volunteer Force member Clifford McKeown in court in a case regarding the 1996 murder of Catholic taxi driver Michael McGoldrick.<ref name="AllisterMcKeown">Template:Cite news</ref> McKeown was found guilty of the murder by the court.<ref name="AllisterMcKeown" /> Allister said that McKeown would be appealing against the conviction.<ref name="AllisterMcKeown" />

Member of the European Parliament

Allister returned to the DUP in 2004 and successfully ran as the party's candidate in Northern Ireland at the 2004 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, topping the poll with 175,000 first-preference votes, 32 per cent of the total.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

It is reported that he participated in more parliamentary debates and asked more questions than his fellow Northern Irish MEPs Bairbre de Brún of Sinn Féin and Jim Nicholson of the Ulster Unionist Party. Allister was also active as a member of the European Parliament Fisheries Committee and was ranked by the pressure group TaxPayers' Alliance as the most "hard-working, transparent and pro-taxpayer" of the 75 United Kingdom MEPs during the 2004–2009 European Parliament.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On 27 March 2007, Allister resigned from the DUP because of the party's decision to enter into government with Sinn Féin. It was the second occasion on which he had resigned from the party.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In late 2007, there was speculation that Allister might found a new unionist political party.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was also claimed, on 10 October 2007, that he had been approached by the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but he in fact proceeded to found the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) on 7 December 2007.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In the 2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, this time standing as a TUV candidate, Allister polled 13.5 per cent of the first-preference votes cast but was not re-elected.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Leader of the TUV

Allister speaking in Belfast in 2013

Jim Allister stood as a TUV candidate in the 2010 Westminster parliamentary election in the North Antrim constituency. Having polled well in the previous year's European election, Allister stood a chance of winning the seat. This would have been a tremendous loss to the DUP, as it has historically been the party's safest seat and the seat of DUP founder and former party leader Ian Paisley. He came second in the poll with 7,114 votes to the DUP's Ian Paisley Jr who polled 19,672 votes.

Allister is a vocal critic of the A5 Western Transport Corridor, and claimed in 2010 a proposed bypass around Dungiven on the A6 would destroy some Protestant-owned farms and suggested this was planned "in order to avoid the more direct route which would disrupt the GAA facilities".<ref>"A5 and A6 road upgrade projects will go ahead", Belfast Newsletter, January 21, 2010.</ref>

Allister returned to the Northern Ireland Assembly at the 2011 election, being the last candidate elected in North Antrim.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2012, the year after his return to the Assembly, Allister established at Parliament Buildings in Belfast an annual event to mark the European Day of Remembrance of Victims of Terrorism<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> – each year on the anniversary of the Madrid bombings of 11 March 2004, the European Union remembers the victims of terrorist attacks across the world.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In August 2012, Allister called the Parades Commission "little Hitlers" when they placed restrictions on a loyalist parade.<ref name="Belfast Telegraph">Template:Cite web</ref>

In June 2013, a private member's bill<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> proposed by Allister - the Civil Service (Special Advisers) Bill<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – was voted into law<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> by the Northern Ireland Assembly. The bill's aim was to tighten the rules governing appointment of special advisers (SPADS)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> by ministers of the Northern Ireland government. Amongst other things, the new law debarred anyone convicted of an offence carrying a jail sentence of five years or more from appointment as a SPAD.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Allister said that he was inspired to introduce the bill by the example of Ann Travers who had protested against the appointment, in 2011, of former IRA member Mary McArdle to the position of special adviser by the then Sinn Féin minister for culture and arts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> McArdle had been convicted for her part in the 1972 murder of Mary Travers and the serious wounding of her father, Tom Travers, a Belfast magistrate.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Some years later, Allister recalled: "I labelled it 'Ann's Law' because that's a proper tribute to the driving force behind it. That's probably my proudest moment as a politician … to have left on the statute book the first victory in years for innocent victims."<ref name="Allister personal interview"/>

Allister holds conservative views on social policy, and is a supporter of the evangelical creationist lobby group, the Caleb Foundation.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

He ran again for Northern Ireland at the 2014 European Parliament election, receiving 75,806 first-preference votes (12.1%), a decrease of 1.6%.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

At the 2016 Assembly election, Allister topped the poll in North Antrim, and was elected on the seventh count.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In November 2016, Allister opposed a motion pardoning gay men convicted for formerly illegal homosexual acts.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In February 2021, the Functioning of Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> was passed by a vote in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Introduced as a private member's bill by Jim Allister, the bill's primary aim was to correct dysfunctional behaviour by ministers, special advisers and civil servants who ran the government of Northern Ireland. The Coghlin Report (March 2020)<ref>Template:Cite news;</ref> into the Renewable Heating Incentive scheme scandal<ref>Template:Cite web;</ref> had proposed 44 recommendations for improvement in the functioning of the Northern Ireland government and its civil service.<ref>Template:Cite web;</ref> The NI Executive and Assembly had responded to this report by creating a new code of conduct to address these failures.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> But Allister was of the opinion that this was insufficient and that law, rather than guidance, was necessary to remedy the problems identified in the report.<ref>Template:Cite web;</ref> The bill he proposed was complex, detailed and led to much debate in the Northern Ireland Assembly but most of its content was eventually approved, with only one of the parties in the assembly objecting to all of its content.<ref>Template:Cite web;</ref> As a result of the new law,<ref>Template:Cite web;Template:Cite web;</ref> written records of all governmental meetings were to be taken by civil servants, confidential government business was no longer to be discussed via private email accounts, sharing of confidential information which could be used for private financial gain was to be a criminal offence, ministers and special advisers were to sign a registry of interests which would show whether their personal financial interest overlapped with their elected responsibilities, and the appointment of so-called 'super-spads' by a political party rather than via the normal civil service appointment procedures was prohibited.<ref>Template:Cite news;</ref> Finally, the first minister and deputy first minister were to produce a report, every two years, regarding the functional performance of the government, its departments and attached civil service personnel.

An August 2021, opinion poll by the polling company LucidTalk found a large rise in support for Allister's party the TUV to 14% of first preference vote intentions in the upcoming May 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly elections. At the same time, the poll found that 51 per cent of those who responded rated Allister's performance as "bad or awful", compared with "bad or awful" ratings for Paul Givan, Jeffrey Donaldson and Michelle O'Neill of 48, 47 and 45 per cent, respectively.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> TUV failed to win any new seats in the election, despite increasing their overall vote by 5.0%.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Allister was re-elected in North Antrim on the fifth count, polling 8,282 first-preferences (16.4%).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Expressing his disappointment during the count, he said: “We have 7.6 percent of the vote, a massive increase, but that is not reflected in the number of seats. It is very disappointing when you collect 4-5,000 votes or more in many other constituencies that it doesn’t translate into seats because of the vagaries of the system.”<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Member of Parliament

In March 2024, the TUV formed an electoral alliance with the right-wing populist party Reform UK, under which they would stand agreed candidates in Northern Ireland at the 2024 United Kingdom general election.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Allister later confirmed that he would be contesting the North Antrim constituency for the TUV–Reform alliance.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> North Antrim had long been regarded as one of the safest DUP constituencies, having been held by Ian Paisley Jr since the 2010 United Kingdom general election and previously his father Ian Paisley since the 1970 United Kingdom general election. Allister defeated Ian Paisley Jr by 450 votes and gave the TUV its first victory in a Westminster election.<ref name="DUP lose Westminster seat held by Paisleys since 1970">Template:Cite web</ref>

Following his election, there was speculation as to whether Allister would sit as a Reform UK MP, alongside their five MPs in the commons. While announcing the former deputy mayor of Mid and East Antrim, Timothy Gaston, as his successor in the Assembly, Allister confirmed that he would not be formally taking the Reform whip, but would do so when supporting the party on 'agreed issues'.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In September 2024, Allister came seventh out of twenty successful MPs in the Private Members' Bill Ballot, entitling him to put forward a bill in the Commons.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

A poll by LucidTalk in August 2025 found Allister to be the most popular leader among unionist voters.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Additionally, the TUV were also found to have secured enough support to overtake both the Alliance Party and UUP for the first time, becoming the third-most popular party. The poll showed that 13% of voters intended to vote TUV at the Next Assembly election.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Allister married Ruth McCullagh in 1978. They have two sons and a daughter.<ref name="BBC2024" /><ref name="WW" /> He is a member of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

External links

• Template:UK MP links
• European Parliament profile
• Leading for Ulster: Speaking for You (a collection of speeches by Allister)
• Maiden Speech in European Parliament, 21 July 2004