Unionism in the United Kingdom

Constitutional documents and events relevant to the status of the United Kingdom and its countries
List per year Treaty of Union 1706 Acts of Union 1707 Succession to the Crown Act 1707 1707 Septennial Act 1716 Wales and Berwick Act 1746 Constitution of Ireland (1782) 1782 Acts of Union 1800 1800 HC (Disqualifications) Act 1801 1801 Reform Act 1832 1832 Scottish Reform Act 1832 1832 Irish Reform Act 1832 1832 Judicial Committee Act 1833 1833 Judicial Committee Act 1843 1843 Judicial Committee Act 1844 1844 Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865 British North America Act 1867 1867 Representation of the People Act 1867 1867 Reform Act (Scotland) 1868 1868 Reform Act (Ireland) 1868 1868 Irish Church Act 1869 Royal Titles Act 1876 1876 Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 Reform Act 1884 1884 Interpretation Act 1889 1889 Cth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 Parliament Act 1911 Aliens Restriction Act 1914 Status of Aliens Act 1914 1914 Government of Ireland Act 1914 1914 Welsh Church Act 1914 Royal Proclamation of 1917 1917 Representation of the People Act 1918 1918 Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919 Government of Ireland Act 1920 Anglo-Irish Treaty 1921 Church of Scotland Act 1921 1921 Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922 Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922 Ireland (Confirm. of Agreement) Act 1925 1925 Balfour Declaration of 1926 1926 Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 Representation of the People Act 1928 1928 Eire (Confirmation of Agreement) Act 1929 1929 Statute of Westminster 1931 HM Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 1936 Regency Act 1937 1937 Regency Act 1943 1943 Indian Independence Act 1947 Burma Independence Act 1947 British Nationality Act 1948 1948 Representation of the People Act 1948 1948 Ireland Act 1949 1949 Statute of the Council of Europe 1949 Parliament Act 1949 1949 Regency Act 1953 1953 Royal Titles Act 1953 1953 European Convention on Human Rights 1953 Interpretation Act (NI) 1954 HC Disqualification Act 1957 1957 Life Peerages Act 1958 Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 1962 Peerage Act 1963 West Indies Act 1967 1967 Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 1968 Immigration Act 1971 EC Treaty of Accession 1972 NI (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972 European Communities Act 1972 Local Government Act 1972 UK joins the European Communities 1973 Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 NI border poll 1973 NI Constitution Act 1973 House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 Referendum Act 1975 EC membership referendum 1975 Interpretation Act 1978 Scotland Act 1978 1978 Wales Act 1978 1978 Scottish devolution referendum 1979 Welsh devolution referendum 1979 British Nationality Act 1981 1981 Representation of the People Act 1983 1983 Representation of the People Act 1985 1985 Maastricht Treaty 1993 Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 Referendums (Scotland & Wales) Act 1997 Scottish devolution referendum 1997 Welsh devolution referendum 1997 Good Friday Agreement 1998 Northern Ireland Act 1998 Government of Wales Act 1998 Human Rights Act 1998 Scotland Act 1998 House of Lords Act 1999 Representation of the People Act 2000 2000 Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 Constitutional Reform Act 2005 Government of Wales Act 2006 2006 Northern Ireland Act 2009 2009 Lisbon Treaty 2009 Parl. Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 Welsh devolution referendum 2011 Alternative Vote referendum 2011 European Union Act 2011 2011 Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 Scotland Act 2012 2012 Succession to the Crown Act 2013 2013 Scottish independence referendum 2014 House of Lords Reform Act 2014 Wales Act 2014 2014 HL (Expulsion and Suspension) Act 2015 European Union Referendum Act 2015 EU membership referendum 2016 Scotland Act 2016 2016 Wales Act 2017 2017 EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017 Invocation of Article 50 2017 European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 EU Withdrawal Act 2019 2019 EU Withdrawal Act (No. 2) 2019 Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019 EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 UK leaves the European Union 2020 EU (Future Relationship) Act 2020

The Kingdom of Great Britain was formed on 1 May 1707 through the Acts of Union 1707, two simultaneous acts passed by the parliaments of England and Scotland. These created a political union between the Kingdom of England (consisting of England and Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland. This event was the result of the Treaty of Union that was agreed on 22 July 1706.[4]

The Acts created a single Parliament of Great Britain at Westminster as well as a customs and monetary union. However, England and Scotland remained separate legal jurisdictions.

In 1801, the Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland, through two similar independent acts of the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland. This created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on a similar basis to how England and Scotland had been united a century earlier.

A campaign to repeal the Union in Ireland began immediately. A series of efforts in the late 19th and early 20th century to establish Home Rule for Ireland within the union were unsuccessful and, following the Anglo-Irish War and subsequent Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1922, most of Ireland left the union as the Irish Free State. Northern Ireland remained part of the union and the United Kingdom became known formally as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1927 (see: Partition of Ireland).

Prior to the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain, the three kingdoms had been separate states in personal union. When James VI of Scotland succeeded his cousin, Elizabeth I of England, as king of England, the crowns of England, Ireland and Scotland were united.

Before then, in 1542, the crowns of England and Ireland had been united through the creation of the Kingdom of Ireland under the Crown of Ireland Act 1542. Since the 12th century, the King of England had acted as Lord of Ireland, under papal overlordship. The act of 1542 created the title of King of Ireland for King Henry VIII of England and his successors, removing the role of the Pope as ultimate overlord of Ireland.

Support for the Union was historically highest in England and lowest in Ireland, with significant anti-Union movements in Scotland and Wales. Today, polls consistently show that a majority of people in England and Wales support the continuation of the Union, however in Scotland support for independence has regularly polled higher than support for the union.[5] Since the widespread devolution of the late 1990s, the electorate of Scotland and Wales had been more likely to vote for nationalist political parties for local or regional elections than in general elections for the House of Commons, where support for the UK-wide parties dominated. However, for Scotland, after the 2015 United Kingdom general election this is no longer the case with the SNP returning 56 and out of 59 MPs. In England, English nationalist parties have never won a seat in Parliament.

In 2014, the extent of UK-wide support for the Union came under considerable investigation as a result of the prospect of Scottish independence. The final result of the referendum saw a majority of Scottish voters electing to remain in the Union, with 55.3% voting against independence.[6] Polls conducted in 2014 found that 70% of voters in England opposed Scottish independence,[7] as did 83% of the Welsh population.[8]

The Scottish referendum prompted an increase in political activity and vocalism across the United Kingdom. Several hundred celebrities, business leaders and political figures signed open letters to the national media supporting the Union and opposing Scottish independence,[9][10] while large pro-Union rallies were held in several British cities, including in Trafalgar Square.[11]

Although support for independence declined and/or stagnated generally between 2015 and 2018, it started to increase towards the end of 2019. Independence was leading over Union support in most polls for each month of 2020 up to July. On 6th July 2020, Professor Sir John Curtice stated that "support for the Union [in Scotland] has never been weaker". [12]

In Northern Ireland, support for the Union has been found to increase since the end of The Troubles, especially within the Roman Catholic population.[13] In part, this is as a result of a decreasing association of the Union with radical or extremist political ideologies following the Good Friday Agreement.

The following is a list of active political parties and organisations who support the union.

Major, Great Britain-wide parties

• Conservative and Unionist Party
  • Scottish Conservatives
  • Welsh Conservatives
  • Northern Ireland Conservatives
• Labour Party
  • Scottish Labour
  • Welsh Labour
• Liberal Democrats
  • Scottish Liberal Democrats
  • Welsh Liberal Democrats
• Reform UK[14]
• UK Independence Party (UKIP)[15]

Northern Ireland parties

• Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)
• Progressive Unionist Party (PUP)
• Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV)
• Ulster Unionist Party (UUP)
• UKIP and the Conservatives also stand in Northern Ireland

Parties in British Overseas Territories

• Gibraltar Social Democrats[16]

Minor parties

• Britain First[17]
• British Freedom Party (BFP)
• British National Party (BNP)[18]
• British People's Party (BPP)[19]
• British Union & Sovereignty Party (BUSP)
• National Front (NF)[20]
• Respect Party[21]
• Scottish Unionist Party (SUP)
• More United

Militant and other groups

• Ulster Defence Association (UDA)
• Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
• Orange Order

• Britishness
• Ulster nationalism
• Unionism in England
• Unionism in Ireland
• Unionism in Scotland
• Unionism in Wales
• Welsh independence

• Armitage, David (2000). The Ideological Origins of the British Empire (reprint ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-78978-3.
• Brockliss, L. W. B. (1997). Brockliss, L. W. B.; Eastwood, David (eds.). A Union of Multiple Identities: The British Isles, C1750-c1850 (illustrated ed.). Manchester University Press ND. ISBN 978-0-7190-5046-6.
• Cochrane, Feargal (2001). Unionist Politics and the Politics of Unionism Since the Anglo-Irish Agreement (2, revised ed.). Cork University Press. ISBN 978-1-85918-259-8.
• English, Richard (1996). English, Richard; Walker, Graham S. (eds.). Unionism in Modern Ireland: New Perspectives on Politics and Culture. Macmillan Press. ISBN 978-0-312-15979-5.
• Hazell, Robert (2006). Hazell, Robert (ed.). The English Question. Devolution Series (illustrated, annotated ed.). Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-7369-4.
• Jackson, Alvin (2011). The Two Unions: Ireland, Scotland, and the Survival of the United Kingdom, 1707–2007 (illustrated ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-959399-6.
• Kanter, Douglas (2009). The making of British unionism, 1740–1848: politics, government, and the Anglo-Irish constitutional relationship. Four Courts Press. ISBN 978-1-84682-160-8.
• Kearney, Hugh F. (2006). The British Isles: A History of Four Nations (2, illustrated, revised, reprint ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-84600-4.
• Kendle, John (1992). Walter Long, Ireland and the Union, 1905–1920. McGill-Queens. ISBN 978-0-7735-0908-5.
• Nicholls, Andrew D. (1999). The Jacobean Union: A Reconsideration of British Civil Policies Under the Early Stuarts. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-30835-2.
• O'Day, Alan; Boyce, David George (2001). Defenders of the Union: A Survey of British and Irish Unionism Since 1801. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-17421-3.
• Ward, Paul (2005). Unionism in the United Kingdom, 1918–1974. Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-3827-5.