Thomas Robinson (Northern Ireland politician)

Thomas Daniel Robinson (born 1950 or 1951), known as Tom Robinson, is a former unionist politician in Northern Ireland.

Robinson worked as an Independent Financial Advisor.[1] He joined the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and was elected to Larne Borough Council at the Northern Ireland local elections, 1977. He held his seat in 1981,[2] and was elected Deputy Mayor of Larne in 1982, then Mayor in 1983.[3]

Robinson was elected for the Coast Road district at the Northern Ireland local elections, 1985, 1989,[4] 1993 and 1997.[5] He was also elected to the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996, representing East Antrim.[6]

By 2000, Robinson had become a prominent critic of UUP leader David Trimble.[7] He lost his council seat in 2001,[5] and subsequently defected to the UK Unionist Party (UKUP).[8] He stood for this new party at the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2003,[8] but took only 1.8% of the vote and was not elected.[6]

Robinson stood again for Larne Borough Council at the Northern Ireland local elections, 2005, this time as an independent candidate,[9] but took only 57 votes and was again unsuccessful.[5] He also failed to win a seat at the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2007, standing again for the UKUP,[6] and subsequently joined the Traditional Unionist Voice party.[10]

References

  1. "IoUME Larne District Policing Partnership - Policing Board Announces Independent Members", Northern Ireland Policing Board, 4 May 2003
  2. "The Local Government Elections 1973-1981: Larne", Northern Ireland Elections
  3. "1983", Larne Times, 16 June 2009
  4. "Local Government Elections 1985 - 1989: Larne", Northern Ireland Elections
  5. 1 2 3 "Larne Borough Council Elections 1993-2011", Northern Ireland Elections
  6. 1 2 3 "East Antrim", Northern Ireland Elections
  7. David Cracknell and Alan Murray, "Trimble fails to see off Unionist critics", Daily Telegraph, 8 October 2000
  8. 1 2 "UKUP committed to post-election talks", RTE, 13 November 2003
  9. "29 seek office in what could be the last Larne Borough Council", Larne Times, 15 April 2005
  10. "TUV vow to bring down Stormont Executive", Belfast Telegraph, 9 November 2009
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, June 03, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.