It was the forerunner of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and emerged from the Ulster Protestant Action (UPA) movement.
The PUP stood six candidates against the ruling Ulster Unionist Party of the Northern Ireland parliament in the January 1969 general election.
When Terence O'Neill (the then Northern Irish Prime Minister) stood down from Stormont in 1970 along with one of his colleagues, the PUP nominated candidates for the two vacant seats.
[citation needed] The PUP was wound up in 1971 and re-emerged as the DUP in October of that year.
[citation needed] The electoral label Protestant Unionist was subsequently used in the 1980s by Belfast City Council member George Seawright after he left the DUP.