1. David McNarry was born on 25 May 1948 and is a former Northern Irish unionist politician and Ulster Loyalist representative who served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for Strangford from 2003 to 2016.
22 Facts About David McNarry
1. 2.
David McNarry defected to the UK Independence Party in 2012, serving as the leader of UKIP Northern Ireland from 2013 to 2016.
3.
David McNarry is the current Assistant Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland.
4.
In 1973, McNarry stood unsuccessfully as a pro-White Paper Unionist candidate in the election to the Northern Ireland Assembly, and unsuccessfully again, this time for the United Ulster Unionist Council, in the Constitutional Convention election of 1975.
5.
David McNarry was an unsuccessful candidate for the Ulster Unionist Party in the 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly election, when he stood in North Down.
6.
David McNarry was elected to Ards Borough Council in 1997, representing the Ards West District.
7.
David McNarry did not stand for re-election at the 2001 local elections.
8.
David McNarry was his party's candidate for Strangford at the 2001 general election, following the incumbent MP, John Taylor, retiring.
9.
David McNarry was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly at the 2003 Assembly election as an Ulster Unionist member for Strangford.
10.
David McNarry stood for the party leadership in 2005 along with Alan McFarland and Lord Reg Empey which Empey went on to win.
11.
David McNarry is a former chairman of the Ulster Young Unionist Council.
12.
David McNarry was re-elected to the Assembly at the 2007 and 2011 elections.
13.
David McNarry resigned from the UUP Assembly group on 27 January 2012 after being sacked by party leader Tom Elliott as the Vice Chair of the Assembly Education Committee.
14.
David McNarry left the UUP and joined UKIP in October 2012, becoming UKIP's first MLA and first ever Member of a devolved Assembly in the United Kingdom.
15.
In 2013, David McNarry was elected unopposed as the UKIP Leader in Northern Ireland.
16.
At the September 2014 UKIP national conference in Doncaster, David McNarry delivered a keynote speech which was warmly received by delegates.
17.
David McNarry received praise from commentators who referred to the speech as a "statesman-like" address.
18.
David McNarry did not seek re-election to his Strangford seat, but he did represent the party as its Spokesman in the media during the election campaign.
19.
In 2016, David McNarry said that "foreigners" should be deported from the UK for not paying parking tickets.
20.
David McNarry was asked by radio presenter Stephen Nolan to clarify UKIP's position.
21.
David McNarry sits as a board member of the Ulster-Scots Agency.
22.
David McNarry is active as a political commentator in the local media.