Burrows: Unionism must grow the vote, not just manage it

Jon Burrows is the Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party

Unionism cannot secure its future by becoming better at managing the vote we already have. We must be smarter at elections, certainly. But we must also give people who have switched off, drifted to other parties or never voted for us a compelling reason to back us.

That is the argument I will make at the Ulster Unionist Party conference. Too often political unionism has mistaken noise for influence and a short-term victory for a long-term gain. The Assembly was reduced from 108 members to 90, weakening unionist representation. Collapsing Stormont did not strengthen the Union. Nor did over-promising on the post-Brexit arrangements. We must learn, not endlessly relitigate.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson has called for electoral cooperation. I agree that unionist parties should talk seriously about maximising the unionist vote. Under proportional representation, turnout and transfers matter. At Westminster, the arithmetic is different, but the obligation to think strategically is no less real. It would be unforgivable not to make a serious effort to win back Lagan Valley, or to let East Londonderry slip away through avoidable division. Cooperation cannot mean one party always giving and another taking. We must give and take in the best interests of our community and country.

But electoral cooperation alone is not a strategy for growth. It helps us make better use of existing votes; it does not create new ones. We need to address apathy, bring out supporters who stay at home, encourage first-time voters and earn a hearing from people who no longer see themselves in unionist politics. That requires honest reflection on what we have said and how we have said it. If our language sounds like a permanent argument with ourselves, we should not be surprised when others stop listening.

Unionism also needs voices in business, universities and civic life, and room for more young people and women to lead. We should build relationships across the UK and Ireland without confusing good neighbourliness with constitutional agreement.

It is in that spirit that I recently challenged Michelle O’Neill to a debate. I reiterate that invitation. Let her make the case she believes she has for a united Ireland; I will make the positive, practical case for remaining in the United Kingdom. This is not an invitation to join a “new Ireland” conversation on someone else’s terms. It is a determination to stand up for the Union confidently and in public, and to persuade.

In an uncertain world, our place in the United Kingdom, and through it in NATO, gives us the protection of a serious defence capability. The UK works to protect the undersea cables on which communications and our economy depend, cooperating with Ireland on their resilience. Our police can draw on mutual aid from forces across the UK. These are practical advantages for people living here.

Economic security matters too. When Ireland faced a financial crisis, the UK provided a £3.2 billion bilateral loan as part of the international rescue package. I want the best relationship with our neighbours, but that loan illustrates the resources available within the United Kingdom.

The Union has also helped provide the setting for peace. Northern Ireland is not a failed place. Official figures show security-related shootings at their lowest level since records began in 1969, though every remaining act of violence is one too many. Relationships across these islands have been transformed in a generation. Why would we risk disrupting the constitutional settlement that has helped us get here? The case for constitutional vandalism has never been weaker. We are stronger together in this United Kingdom.

Yet I grew up rarely hearing that confident, everyday case for the Union. We cannot expect people to inherit an allegiance we have failed to explain. Explaining it is only half the job. We must show how Northern Ireland can become stronger within the UK: a place where young people can build a life, families can stay together and communities can feel safe and hopeful.

I am immensely proud of Northern Ireland. I believe in it with every fibre of my being. We punch above our weight in international sport and excel in fields from cybersecurity to advanced manufacturing. Our world-class agri-food industry has been estimated to produce enough protein to meet the needs of ten million people. Add our skilled workers, inventive businesses and volunteers who quietly hold communities together, and there is so much to build on. I reject the caricature of Northern Ireland as a basket case. Our challenges are real, but so is our capacity to overcome them if politics starts looking further ahead.

That work begins with a stronger start. Supporting parents, expanding early-years provision and helping children develop language and a love of reading are investments in Northern Ireland’s future. Schools are grappling with rising numbers of pupils with additional needs and with concerns about children’s development. Excessive screen time and endless scrolling are among the defining challenges facing parents and children; we need practical support and an honest public conversation, not blame or simplistic claims that one factor explains everything.

Stronger families means families able to stay together. They need affordable childcare, skills, worthwhile jobs and homes in the places they call home. Yet in towns and villages across Northern Ireland, new homes are held up because the wastewater system cannot cope. When a family needs a bigger house, they may have to move away from grandparents who help with childcare, or from the school they want for their children. Villages lose their next generation because we have not fixed the infrastructure beneath their feet. This is not just a problem with pipes; it is a problem for families and the future of communities.

Meanwhile, our devolved Assembly finds time to debate Gaza and Iran while too many of the basics within its own responsibility go unresolved. We can care about events abroad, but Stormont must first deliver for the people it serves. Safer, stronger communities need timely justice and public services that work. And all these ambitions need a stronger Stormont: reformed, more decisive and more accountable, while retaining the cross-community protections essential to our settlement. I am the only unionist leader offering both that reform and a commitment to those protections. The Ulster Unionist Party is ready to help lead that reform.

Strong individuals build strong families. Strong families build strong communities. Strong communities build a stronger Northern Ireland, and a stronger Northern Ireland strengthens our United Kingdom. That is what our conference theme, “Stronger Together”, means to me: not merely defending what we have inherited, but building something better for those who come next.