The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) will begin “preparing to lead unionism in Northern Ireland again”, its new leader Jon Burrows has pledged.
A former senior police officer, Mr Burrows was ratified as the party leader at a meeting in Belfast on Saturday.
Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA Diana Armstrong has become the party’s deputy leader.
All of the party’s MLAs and its only MP, Robin Swann, attended the meeting at the Stormont Hotel in Belfast.
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Mr Burrows has been a member of the party for less than a year and was co-opted into his Assembly seat in north Antrim last summer.
He has become UUP leader without a contest after no other party members stood against him when Mike Nesbitt announced he was to stand down.
The Ulster Unionists had been the largest unionist party in Northern Ireland until it was usurped by the DUP in 2003.
But speaking to the media alongside Ms Armstrong, Mr Burrows said the party would now return to the “front foot”.
He said: “Politics has stalled in this place, Stormont is not delivering and keeping up with the advances that have been made elsewhere in Northern Ireland in our vibrant economy and we need to look at why that is.”
He added: “This is a new chapter for the Ulster Unionist Party, we are going to confidently go out engage our communities, provide the leadership that unionism needs, be sure-footed, not make the strategic big mistakes and deliver for the people of Northern Ireland.
“Lead change in what needs to be done at Stormont and project Northern Ireland and its part in the United Kingdom to the global stage.”
Mr Burrows added: “We are here to do business, to get things done, to find solutions and that is what you are going to have as we start preparing to lead unionism in Northern Ireland again.”
Mr Burrows pointed to the success of Reform UK, which had “come from nowhere” to lead in the opinion polls.
Mr Burrows had earlier arrived at the Stormont Hotel accompanied by Ms Armstrong and said he was looking forward to the day.
Mr Nesbitt, who announced he was standing down as leader earlier this year, said he believed this was a “line in the sand moment” for the party.
He said: “We can now switch into an outward-looking election mode and go fishing for votes.”
Mr Nesbitt said he was not aware of reports that Mr Burrows does not have the support of his whole team of Stormont MLAs.
He said: “I have seen nothing but a cohesive team. “There is no tension, there is no dissension that I have spotted.”
Former party leader Steve Aiken said Mr Burrows and Ms Armstrong would make a “great leadership” team.
He said: “This is a very bright day for the Ulster Unionist Party.”
The incoming leader has enjoyed one of the fastest political rises in Northern Ireland’s history.
From leading the police in the North’s second city of Derry, Mr Burrows went on to head the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s (PSNI) discipline branch.
After completing 22 years’ service, he established himself as a political commentator before being co-opted by the UUP to fill an Assembly seat vacancy in North Antrim last year.
[ Will UUP’s ‘enthusiastic, articulate’ new leader halt the party’s decline?Opens in new window ]
Originally from Bangor, Co Down, Mr Burrows followed in the footsteps of his father Colin, a former assistant chief constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
His profile rose as he took up the role of area commander in Foyle and saw threats against police, including in 2012 a plot by dissident republicans attaching a bomb to a bicycle as part of a trap to kill officers.
Over the last six months, Mr Burrows quickly became one of the most outspoken MLAs.
He has been critical of Sinn Féin, accusing them of “interference in policing”, opposed the “distortion of history” around Northern Ireland’s troubled past, advocated for prison dog Bailey at Magilligan and taken part in some sharp exchanges in the chamber. – PA
