Political Career
At the 1964 general election, Kilfedder was elected as an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Member of Parliament for West Belfast. During the campaign there were riots in Divis Street when the police removed a tricolour from the Sinn Féin electoral offices of Billy McMillan after a complaint by Kilfedder in the form of a telegram to the Minister of Home Affairs, Brian McConnell. It read "Remove tricolour in Divis Street which is aimed to provoke and insult loyalists of Belfast." Kilfedder lost his seat at the 1966 election to Gerry Fitt. He was elected again in the 1970 general election for North Down, and held the seat until his death in 1995.
Kilfedder was elected for North Down in the 1973 Assembly election, signing Brian Faulkner's pledge to support the White Paper which eventually established the Sunningdale Agreement but becoming an anti-White Paper Unionist after the election. In 1975 he stood for the same constituency in the Constitutional Convention election, polling over three quotas as a UUP member of the United Ulster Unionist Coalition (UUUC) although he refused to sign the UUUC's pledge of conduct.
He left the UUP in 1977 in opposition to the party's policies tending to integrationism, preferring to advocate the restoration of the Stormont administration. For a time he sat as an "Independent Ulster Unionist". He contested the 1979 European Parliament Election under that label, finishing fourth in the count for the three seats, having overtaken the UUP leader Harry West on transfers.
In 1980 he formed the Ulster Popular Unionist Party (UPUP) and was re-elected under that label in all subsequent elections. He again topped the poll in the 1982 Assembly election and was elected as Speaker of the Assembly (to 1986). He generally took the Conservative whip at Westminster. Whilst Speaker he was paid more than the Prime Minister.
Read more about this topic: James Kilfedder
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