Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party - Split

Split

The Constitutional Convention was intended to serve as a forum to allow the politicians of Northern Ireland to draw up their own proposals for the political future of the province, though this proved unsuccessful. However it led to William Craig proposing a voluntary coalition with the nationalist SDLP in the event of there being a state of emergency. The move was a considerable surprise, with a confidential government memo commenting: "Mr. Craig appears to some as a knight in shining armour. The fact is that his aims were – and still are – simple: to get a devolved government which would control security policy as quickly as possible, on the basis of a gentleman's agreement that the SDLP would participate in government for a year or two." But any idea of power sharing was anathema to many Unionist in the post-Sunningdale climate of 1975. Indeed in January 1976, Deputy leader Ernest Baird warned that "If Westminster does not accept the Protestants' rejection of power-sharing, it must face the inevitable consequences of a final conflict."

As a result the party was split with only David Trimble and Glenn Barr backing Craig and the other eleven convention members challenging Craig's leadership. Craig however claimed that he had the backing of the party's rank and file and this was confirmed when sixty percent of party members and backed him at a specially convened meeting. The dissidents then broke away to form what would later become the United Ulster Unionist Party.

On 8 September 1975, Craig's proposals were decisively rejected at a meeting of the UUUC with 37 votes against and only Craig voting in favour. Consequently, Craig and the rump of VUPP were expelled from the UUUC.