'Love many, trust few' - NI parties still pursue Westminster dalliances

For a party which doesn't even field candidates in Northern Ireland, Reform UK seems omnipresent this weekend.

First off one of its MPs, the man who wants to be chancellor, Robert Jenrick, was special guest at a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) dinner, took part in the party's podcast, and then went walkabout on Belfast's Shankill Road with the party's leader Gavin Robinson.

Meanwhile another Reform MP, Danny Kruger was guest speaker at the annual conference of the DUP's rivals - the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV).

Of the two, Kruger's appearance in Cookstown might be marginally more surprising.

After all, the last time a major figure from Reform UK spoke at a TUV conference, Richard Tice and Jim Allister announced an electoral partnership ahead of the 2024 general election.

That was followed by Reform leader Nigel Farage publicly declaring support for two DUP candidates, Sammy Wilson, and Ian Paisley, who was defending his North Antrim seat against Allister himself.

Allister said he was "disappointed", but it did him no harm.

He defeated Paisley in what was regarded as the biggest upset of the entire election in Northern Ireland.

Allister even toyed with taking the Reform UK whip at Westminster, but settled instead for supporting the party on areas of mutual interest such as opposition to the Irish Sea border.

Speaking of Farage, isn't he the man who once said a united Ireland would happen "one day"?

"I've heard people mention that comment," said Jenrick.

"I've had many conversations with Nigel. That is not his view I can assure you."

The DUP, of course, applauded loudly when Boris Johnson told its conference in 2018 that no British prime minister could ever sign up to a border in the Irish Sea.

Fast forward a year and once in power, on the back of such promises, Johnson signed up to just such a border.

The DUP, somehow, never saw it coming.

Surely they would not put trust in another Westminster party.

Robinson's answer?

"You love many, trust few and always paddle your own canoe and that's exactly what the Democratic Unionist Party does," he said.

The problem is when a smaller local party hooks up with a bigger one, it cedes control.

But it doesn't stop them trying.

When the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham recently addressed the Alliance conference in Belfast he had a great opening line: "It's nice to feel wanted by a political party."

It was a shot at his party's ruling National Executive Committee which blocked him from running in the Gorton and Denton by-election.

But last Saturday, he was wanted by two.

The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), nose possibly out of joint, had already walked him around St George's Market.

When the party leader Claire Hanna posted a picture, the former Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken replied: "I thought @allianceparty had paid for his [plane emoji] ticket!!! Quality trolling from @ClaireHanna & @ MatthewOToole2 - credit where credit is due!!"

As for Aiken's party - though he wasn't a member back then - who can forget UCUNF, the Ulster Conservatives and Unionists - New Force, an electoral pact with the Conservative party for the 2010 General Election?

It was an initiative allowing voters in Northern Ireland to vote for a pro-union party that would compete for power at Westminster.

It was, instead, a disaster.

Not only did it fail to win a single seat, but Lady Hermon, the Ulster Unionist Party's single MP going into the election, resigned from the party because she refused to sit under the UCUNF banner.

Then there was "Vote Mike, Get Colum" - Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt's attempt to urge his party's voters to give their second preferences to the then-SDLP leader Colum Eastwood.

The idea was to get the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP aligning on areas of mutual benefit.

But it was largely misunderstood and it certainly didn't work.

Asked about it recently, Nesbitt said "that ship has sailed a long, long way away".

Eastwood himself promoted an ill-fated partnership with Fianna Fáil in the Republic of Ireland.

Current SDLP leader Hanna subsequently revealed it almost lead to her, and some colleagues, forming a new party in 2019.

But as risky as such cross-fertilisation is, it doesn't seem our parties have been put off trying.

Witness Kruger's appearance at this weekend's TUV conference, or indeed Jenrick's in Belfast.