United Kingdom Unionist Party

He set up the UKUP to fight the North Down by-election in June 1995, which followed the death of the Popular Unionist Party's James Kilfedder. At the by-election, Mr McCartney won 37% of the vote, beating the UUP candidate. His win unsettled the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party; James Molyneaux resigned as UUP leader three months after Mr McCartney’s by-election win.

Mr McCartney had made two earlier attempts to win the North Down seat. In the 1983 general election, he stood as a Ulster Unionist Party candidate. Then, having been expelled from the UUP for not giving Mr Kilfedder a clear run, he stood under a ‘Real Unionist’ banner in the 1987 election, and came second.

In the 1997 general election, Mr McCartney stood again for the North Down seat; the Democratic Unionist Party did not field a rival candidate in this seat and McCartney was re-elected. He beat the UUP candidate, Alan McFarland, even more narrowly than in 1995, with a majority of 1449.

Mr McCartney's Parliamentary concerns include "legislative integration for Northern Ireland and the reinvolvement of the province in UK affairs".

In line with other Unionist parties, the UKUP supports British rule of Northern Ireland (Ulster) and is opposed to measures (eg the framework agreement) to unite Ulster with the Republic of Ireland. UKUP unionism is non-sectarian, but based on citizenship and the premise that Northern Ireland should become more British and remain part of the UK simply because Ulster’s citizens want it that way.

Uncharacteristically for a unionist party, the UKUP is not aligned to the Conservative Party. In spite of Labour's commitment to 'a united Ireland by consent', Mr McCartney has taken the Labour whip though not on constitutional issues.