Nearly 40% of Alliance members would vote for Irish unity, survey finds

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/nearly-40-of-alliance-members-would-vote-for-irish-unity-survey-finds/a691093736.html

Figures suggest younger members of party are less likely to support remaining in Union

More Alliance members would vote for Irish unity than would support Northern Ireland remaining in the UK if a border poll was held in the next decade, according to a new survey.

Some 38% would choose to end the Union in a referendum with 27% opting to maintain it and 4% saying they would abstain.

A significant number of the party’s members — 30% — don’t know how they would vote if a border poll was held.

Those of no religion and Catholics in the party’s ranks are most likely to support Irish unity. More than twice as many of them want constitutional change than back the status quo, with Protestants more likely to support the Union.

The first survey of Alliance members in over two decades shows they divide on Irish unity along age lines. Those who joined since the year 2000 are less likely to want Northern Ireland to stay in the UK than those who signed up before then.

Alliance takes no position on the constitutional future of Northern Ireland and its MLAs designate as neither nationalist nor unionist. The party’s opponents accuse it of ‘fence sitting’ on the issue of the border.

More than 800 Alliance members took part in the online and postal survey for the University of Liverpool and Ulster University, along with Bath, Huddersfield and Canterbury Christ Church universities.

Professor Jon Tonge of the University of Liverpool was the lead researcher with around two-thirds of the party’s members participating in the survey, carried out from 2021-22.

The results were presented to an internal Alliance meeting at the party’s conference on Saturday.

Naomi Long said she wasn’t surprised by the results.

Speaking on BBC Sunday Politics, the Alliance leader said Brexit had “moved the dial in that direction”.

“The people who vote Alliance are not motivated by the constitutional politics of Northern Ireland but are concerned about issues like our engagement with Europe. Those things matter to them profoundly,” she said.

But the Alliance leader insisted the border wasn’t a priority for her members. “The issue of the constitutional question is way down the priority list… where it has always been.
“It isn’t that people don’t have political and constitutional aspirations, but it isn’t their driving force,” she added.

Almost three-quarters of Alliance members believe Irish unity is likely with just 8% saying it isn’t. Some 54% of them believe there should be a border poll within the next decade with 29% against and 17% saying they don’t know.

Asked what the long-term policy for Northern Ireland should be, 35% say Irish unity with 22% say remaining in the UK.
Almost a quarter (24%) cite other options including a federal state, a ‘new Ireland’, and autonomy for Northern Ireland.

Catholic Alliance members were more than twice as likely to opt for Irish unity (41%) than want to remain in the UK (18%).
Those of no religion in the party were similarly in favour of a united Ireland over the Union: 42% to 16%.

More Protestant members support the Union (32%) than Irish unity (28%), although the greatest number (40%) say they don’t know what the long-term constitutional future of Northern Ireland should be.

Asked if Alliance is neutral on the constitutional question, two-thirds of party members say yes with 20% saying it’s slightly more pro-Union than pro-united Ireland and just 3% viewing it as slightly more pro-unity.

Some 83% of those in Alliance ranks believe Brexit has made Irish unity more likely.
Three-quarters believe north-south customs checks are unacceptable while half say the same about checks on goods moving from Britain to Northern Ireland.

by Ah_here_like