David Wilson Boyd Burnside (born 24 August 1951) is an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Antrim from 2001 to 2005.

[1] After the collapse of Vanguard he joined the Ulster Unionist Party, standing unsuccessfully in the 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly but then took a back seat from politics for many years while working as a prominent public relations consultant based in London which led him to set up his own PR company.

Following Virgin's highly publicized mission of mercy to Iraq to fly home hostages who had been held by Saddam Hussein in 1991, Lord King is reported to have told Burnside and CEO Colin Marshall to "do something about Branson".

British Airways, faced with likely defeat, settled the case giving £500,000 to Branson and a further £110,000 to his airline; further, BA was to pay the legal fees of up to £3 million.

[citation needed] Following the case Burnside was awarded a settlement of approximately £400,000 and free first class travel on BA for four years.

On 23 June 2003, Burnside, Donaldson and Smyth resigned the UUP whip in the House of Commons, launching a strong attack on Trimble's leadership.

[9] The trio successfully fought off attempts to discipline them using the courts and in November 2003 both Burnside and Donaldson were elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly.