In 1996 she was an unsuccessful candidate in the Northern Ireland Forum election in East Londonderry.
[1] In 1998, Armitage was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly, representing East Londonderry.
In this session of the Assembly, she occasionally voted against the party line, supporting a Democratic Unionist Party motion for Sinn Féin MLAs to be excluded from the Executive.
In June 2003, she resigned her membership of the UUP,[4] quickly joining the UK Unionist Party (UKUP).
[5] She stood unsuccessfully for the UKUP in East Londonderry at the 2003 Assembly election, taking only 906 votes.