The Conservatives are the only major British party to field candidates within Northern Ireland and typically contests only a fraction of seats in elections.

The IUA's Members of Parliament took the Conservative Party whip at Westminster, but the organisation retained a level of independence.

This relationship broke down in 1972, following Unionist opposition to the proposed Sunningdale Agreement, when all but one of the UUP MPs resigned the Conservative whip.

The sole exception, Stratton Mills, left the UUP and continued to take the whip for a further year, before joining the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland.

Another UUP MP, Robin Chichester-Clark, became Minister of State for Employment in the Conservative government from April 1972 to February 1974.

An Independent Conservative also won a seat on Lisburn Borough council,[6][7] although he joined the UUP before the 1993 local elections.

Lloyd Hall-Thompson, another retired former UUP Stormont politician, became chair of the local Lagan Valley branch.

The former UUP leader and First Minister, David Trimble was elevated to the House of Lords on losing his Commons seat.

[10] In July 2008, David Cameron and Sir Reg Empey announced a working group to develop a partnership with the UUP.

The party in Northern Ireland was largely opposed to the Good Friday Agreement, in contrast to the national leadership who were in favour.

[24] The Northern Ireland Conservatives have a low support base, attracting 0.5% of the poll (3,500 votes) in the 2007 Assembly election.

Its best performance came in the North Down constituency, where the local party chairman, Laurence Kennedy, came second, 5,000 votes behind the sitting MP James Kilfedder.