Alliance’s goal for ‘leading change’
At its annual conference, the Alliance Party outlined its goal of ‘leading change’, with reforming Stormont a key goal of the party as Naomi Long enters her 10th year in leadership. Joshua Murray attended the conference and reports.
With two years before another election takes place, this Alliance conference had a much more technocratic tone than others in recent years. Long, Eóin Tennyson, Andrew Muir, and, among others, Sorcha Eastwood, spent a considerable amount of their speaking times devoted to talking about reforming the institutions.
In her leader’s speech, Long said that “the need for institutional reform remains a priority”. “The structures within which we operate not only give additional privileges to those who remain wedded to binary politics, but they actively reward destructive and disruptive behaviour, rather than incentivising cooperation, stability, and progress,” she said.
These remarks were shadowed by Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Andrew Muir MLA, who remarked that reform of the institutions would not mean that either the DUP or Sinn Féin would withdraw their support for devolution, as “these parties have serious FOMO [fear of missing out]”.
Whether Alliance succeeds in reforming the institutions remains to be seen, as Sinn Féin is steadfastly opposed to changing the rules around forming an Executive, and the DUP – after years of calling for an end to ‘mandatory coalition’, has refused to support Alliance’s attempts to call for reform in the Assembly.
Remembering Anna Lo
This was the first Alliance conference since the death of party stalwart and former south Belfast MLA, Anna Lo. The conference started with a minute’s silence in her honour, and Long began her leader’s speech with a lengthy tribute to Lo.
“Northern Ireland has lost a fantastic public servant who was the very definition of leading change. Her family lost a mother, grandmother, and deeply loved partner. But each of us in this room lost a dear friend,” Long told her party members.
The future
While Eóin Tennyson MLA is evidently held in high regard – being the first politician born after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement to assume a senior leadership position in a political party – the question of who will succeed Long as Alliance leader in the future threw up mixed results.
There has been no public indication that Long will depart as Alliance leader, however, the party’s growth has – for the time being – hit a high water mark, meaning that speculation over her successor will only continue to ferment.
While there was no consensus on whether Eóin Tennyson will ever lead the party, there was a high level of consistency in the enthusiasm for Lagan Valley MP Sorcha Eastwood, who stood out as the best communicator among the Alliance Party’s senior figures. “I would say it will be Sorcha,” one party member told agendaNi.
After a highly successful Assembly election in 2022, reasonably successful local elections in 2023, and a mixed set of results in the 2024 general election, the Alliance Party will be looking forward to leading on a technocratic theme like reforming of the devolved institutions.
There is a changing of the guard underway, with Stephen Farry not in attendance at an Alliance conference for the first time in 35 years after losing his North Down Westminster seat and subsequently resigning as the deputy leader and leaving the party.
Interview: Paula Bradshaw MLA
agendaNi spoke to Paula Bradshaw MLA, who has represented the Belfast South constituency since 2016 and is the party’s chief whip. We started by asking her about the party’s priorities in the short to medium term in the absence of an election. Bradshaw said that the gap before the next election means that Alliance is determined to lead in its executive portfolios – DAERA and Justice – with the conference taking place one day after the Programme for Government (PfG) was published. The conference was dominated by the party’s determination to reform the Assembly and Executive formation. Asked on what this reform would look like, Bradshaw said: “We need the place to be reformed so that we can bring forward progressive policies that benefit all sections of society, not just the green side or the orange side. I think that we need the two governments [British and Irish], to see that we need to modernise the institutions to reflect our society now.” On her engagements with other parties on this matter, Bradshaw attacks the position of the DUP, saying: “The peculiar thing about the position that the DUP have taken on this… They in their manifestos for years have been going on about the need to replace mandatory coalition.” “It does not matter who steps aside, whether it is Sinn Fein or the DUP. Whoever wants to get on and govern the place and take responsibility for delivering on good public services should be allowed to take that forward. It is not about what your mandate is or what side of community you are about, it is about actually delivering for all the people in Northern Ireland.” On 24 February 2025, four days before the launch of the conference, a LucidTalk opinion poll, carried out for the Belfast Telegraph, found that 41 per cent of people in Northern Ireland are supportive of Irish unification. However, the Alliance Party’s conference did not make any reference to either this, and made scant reference to anything on an all-island basis. When pressed on this, Bradshaw told agendaNi: “Look, we are all about the bread and butter issues. We are all about the impact the issues that are impacting on families and individuals and businesses right now. “We want to see Northern Ireland coming together. We want people from all backgrounds, all pulling in the same direction because we think that inclusivity and embracing diversity is the way forward, and that includes people with a wide range of positions on the constitutional position.” |
