Basil McCrea

McCrea unsuccessfully contested the 2005 general election in Lagan Valley for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).[5] He was elected in 2007 to the Northern Ireland Assembly as a UUP member for Lagan Valley. He has been a UUP Councillor on Lisburn City Council and was, until his election to the Assembly, a Party officer and spokesman for the Northern Ireland Manufacturers' Focus Group.[6] He has served as a member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board and UUP spokesman on Education. He was formerly a member of the Assembly Committee for the Department for Employment and Learning.

He stood for leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) against Tom Elliott in the contest after the UK 2010 General Election. He was widely seen as the candidate of the UUP's "liberal" wing, while Elliott was seen as the candidate of the "conservative" wing. He lost the election by 643 votes to 296. In 2012 McCrea attended a Sinn Féin event on 'uniting Ireland' and said unionism should not be afraid to put its case.[7]

In October 2012, he was one of three unionist assembly members to vote in favour of same-sex marriage being introduced in Northern Ireland.[8]

In February 2013, having been subjected to a UUP disciplinary process for publicly opposing a proposal for a "unionist unity" candidate in an impending Parliamentary by-election, McCrea announced that he was resigning from the UUP, stating that he disagreed with the tactic of joint working with the rival Democratic Unionist Party.[9]

McCrea was born into an Ulster Scots family in Omagh but grew up in Ramelton a small town in the north-east of County Donegal in the west of the Republic of Ireland, where he grew up in his very early years.[18] His father carried an Irish passport, although McCrea himself carries a British one.[18] He was educated at Belfast Royal Academy (B.R.A.) before attaining a Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Birmingham.[2] He later attained a degree in Advanced Computer Technology from the University of Ulster.