Michael McGimpsey

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Michael McGimpsey, MLA
MLA
Incumbent
Assumed office  1998
Constituency	Belfast South
Born	June 1, 1948 (age 58) Donaghadee, County Down, Northern Ireland
Political party	Ulster Unionist Party
Website	UUP webpage

Cllr Michael McGimpsey MLA (born July 1, 1948) is a Northern Ireland unionist politician, and Ulster Unionist Party Member of the Legislative Assembly for Belfast South.

McGimpsey was born in Donaghadee, County Down and attended Trinity College, Dublin. In the mid 1980s he came to prominence alongside his brother Christopher when they challenged the Anglo-Irish Agreement by bringing a suit against the Irish government in the High Court of the Republic of Ireland, arguing that the Agreement was invalid because it contradicted Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland. (This argument was unusual coming from Unionists because of the traditional Unionist opposition to these two articles.) The case failed in the High Court, and again on appeal to the Supreme Court.

In 1993 he was first elected to Belfast City Council. In 1998 McGimpsey was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly and served as Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure in the Northern Ireland Executive from 1999 until 2002.

In the run-up to the 2001 UK general election McGimpsey challenged the sitting MP Martin Smyth for the Ulster Unionist nomination for Belfast South but lost. Four years later Smyth retired and McGimpsey was selected to fight the constituency in the 2005 general election but proved a highly controversial and divisive candidate. The rival Democratic Unionist Party stood a candidate for the seat for the first time in over twenty years and in the fierce battle between the two Unionist parties both Smyth and former Ulster Unionist leader James Molyneaux endorsed Jimmy Spratt, the DUP candidate. When the results were declared McGimpsey was in third place, with the seat being won by the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party politician Alasdair McDonnell due to the split Unionist vote.

McGimpsey was seen as politically close to David Trimble and was at one stage talked of as a potential future leader of the Ulster Unionists in some quarters; however his poor election result meant that when Trimble resigned after the election McGimpsey was not considered in the contest to succeed him. Politically McGimpsey is seen as being on the left of the Ulster Unionists and is a member of the Unionist Labour Group.