Yet again, the selection of the next leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) was not a contest, but a coronation.
As the sole candidate to put his name forward by the close of nominations on Thursday afternoon, Jon Burrows, the former senior police officer who was selected as an Assembly member (MLA) for North Antrim only months ago, will be the next leader of the UUP.
He will take up the position following his ratification at an extraordinary general meeting of the party on January 31st, with the outgoing leader, Mike Nesbitt – Northern Ireland’s Minister of Health – continuing in the role until then.
Burrows becomes the fifth person to lead the party since 2012, the last time the leadership was contested, following in the footsteps of Nesbitt, Robin Swann, Steve Aiken, Doug Beattie and, most recently, Nesbitt again.
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It is a remarkable rise to the top for the ambitious former senior police officer who was co-opted as an MLA in August, and indeed only became a party member shortly before.
For Brian Kingston, a Ballymena councillor and chairman of the party association in North Antrim who was on the panel which chose Burrows as the constituency’s MLA, the incoming party leader stood out.
“As he has proved on the floor of the Assembly, he’s a good orator, he could put across a point very succinctly.
“We have a very articulate person coming in as leader now, and probably in all of unionism we haven’t had somebody like Jon for some time,” he says.
A former senior police officer originally from Bangor, Co Down – though he lived for a number of years in Ballymoney, in the North Antrim constituency – Burrows spent 22 years in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
His roles included area commander in Derry and head of the PSNI’s discipline branch; since leaving policing in 2021 he has become a regular commentator on policing and justice issues in the Northern media.
Announcing his candidacy last week, Burrows described himself as an “unapologetic unionist” and promised to “arrest stagnation” within the once-dominant UUP.
This is the same challenge that long list of predecessors have faced, and failed. How to arrest that slow decline that has taken the Ulster Unionists from the largest party in Northern Ireland at the time of the Belfast Agreement in 1998 to fourth place, with 11 per cent of the vote and nine MLAs?
“He talks a very good talk. He’s bouncy, he’s enthusiastic, he’s articulate,” says Alex Kane, journalist and former UUP head of communications. “He’s somebody who, if he was working the room in some Ulster Unionist meetings – which he has been – he would make them feel better, he would make them feel a win is possible, there’s a comeback from the present doldrums.
“I think if he has a game plan and he was committed to it and could bring enough people with him, the sheer power of his almost Tiggerish quality, that might be enough to make a difference.”
Burrows’ speech on assuming the leadership will be a key moment, his opportunity to demonstrate that he has such a plan and whether, as a largely unknown quantity and an unelected leader, he can command the support necessary to turn the UUP’s fortunes around.
“The party is like an ailing football club which is constantly changing managers,” says writer and former BBC Northern Ireland political correspondent Stephen Walker. “You are judged by results, and any new leader has to reverse the electoral fortunes of the UUP very quickly.
The new leader needs a clear vision and fresh thinking but above all needs to define exactly what the party stands for and how it is relevant to modern-day Northern Ireland.
“Another series of poor election results will simply exacerbate calls for the party to merge with the DUP.”
With the next Assembly election due in May 2027, the new UUP leader has some time, but not much.
