Jon Burrows on course to become next Ulster Unionist Party leader

Jon Burrows looks set to become the next leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) after Robbie Butler said he would not be seeking the role.

Butler, who is the party's current deputy leader, said it had become apparent the direction many in the party wanted to pursue would be under a "different leadership style" than his.

"To this end I will not be offering my name for leader of the Ulster Unionist Party," he said.

Burrows announced his candidacy earlier in January, saying that under his leadership the UUP would be "clear, credible and on the front foot".

Nominations closed on Thursday, with an extraordinary general meeting set for 31 January to choose a new leader and deputy leader.

The contest was triggered after Mike Nesbitt announced he would step down as leader.

Speaking on BBC NI's The View, MLA Steve Aiken, who is also a former leader of the party, said he "wanted to see" a leadership contest but Burrows has his "full support".

Aiken added that he is "looking forward to working" with him and his running mate for deputy leader, Diana Armstrong.

"Jon will be an excellent leader," he said, adding that he believes Burrows will lead the party "well on the way to an electoral success in the assembly elections".

In a statement on Thursday, the UUP confirmed that nominations closed at 17:00 GMT.

"We can confirm that Jon Burrows MLA has successfully met the nomination threshold of 35 signatures from at least nine constituency associations and will stand as a candidate for leader of the Ulster Unionist Party," it said.

"The party will now move to the next stage of the leadership transition."

It added that the party's management board will meet to "agree the next steps and finalise arrangements for leadership engagements and for the extraordinary general meeting scheduled for 31 January 2026".

The UUP said Mike Nesbitt will continue as party leader "until a new leader is formally ratified".

Burrows has been an assembly member since the summer of 2025, when he was co-opted to replace Colin Crawford in North Antrim.

If ratified by party members at the end of this month, Burrows would be the fifth consecutive leader to take over the UUP without a contest.

Diana Armstrong, said she was backing him because the party needed "fresh thinking".

Her constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone represents a large swathe of grassroots UUP voters.

In his statement, Butler said when Nesbitt announced his intention to stand down he took time to engage with colleagues across the party.

"It quickly became clear that there was significant support for me to stand for the leadership," he added, saying support ran across all levels of the UUP.

However, Butler said through those conversations it had become apparent to his team that the direction many within the party "now wish to pursue would be under a different leadership style and new focus".

He said he remained loyal to the cause of enlarging the pro-union voting block and that he would "engage honestly and with good conscience" in the days ahead to understand the direction of any new leadership team whilst "demonstrating the credo: country first, party second".

Butler has been an assembly member for Lagan Valley since 2016, as well as the UUP's chief whip at one stage.

Burrows served as a senior police officer in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) until his retirement in 2021.

He is a strong advocate on behalf of rank and file police officers.

Since retiring from the PSNI, he has become a regular media contributor on policing issues.

He replaced Colin Crawford who resigned from the party over a press release issued in his name after disorder in Ballymena.

Read more here.

Armstrong has been an assembly member since September 2024, when she was co-opted to replace Tom Elliott after he was given a life peerage.

She is the only female rerpesentative the UUP has at Stormont.

Armstrong's political career began in 2016 when she was co-opted onto Fermanagh and Omagh District Council.

She was elected in 2019 and re-elected in 2023.

Her father Harry West was a unionist MP and leader of the UUP between 1974 and 1979.

Armstrong said she did not underestimate the significance of being nominated as the first female deputy leader in the 101-year history of the party.