Harold McKee is a Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) politician and farmer from Northern Ireland, who was a Newry Mourne and Down Councillor for The Mournes DEA from 2014 to 2016, and then again from 2019 until 2023.

McKee served also as an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for South Down from 2016 to 2017.

Career

McKee was first elected to Newry and Mourne District Council in the 2011 election for the Mournes.

He retained his seat on the newly-formed Newry, Mourne and Down District Council in the 2014 local elections.

At the 2015 general election, McKee contested South Down, where he finished third against the incumbent MP, Margaret Ritchie of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).

At the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election, he was elected as one of six members of the South Down constituency. As an MLA, he was a member of the Committee for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, and tabled 297 questions during his term of office. At the 2017 snap Assembly election, he failed to retain his Assembly seat, when the number of seats were reduced from six to five.

At the 2017 general election, he again contested South Down, but came fourth, losing his deposit.

At the 2019 local elections, McKee returned to represent the Mournes on Newry, Mourne and Down District Council. In October 2021, McKee resigned from the UUP, citing disagreements with party leader Doug Beattie over 'liberal values', saying it was "becoming very difficult to endorse a leader who is constantly to the fore promoting liberal issues".^[1]

McKee subsequently joined the Traditional Unionist Voice, and was the party's candidate for South Down in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, where he finished seventh.^[2]

At the 2023 local elections, he lost his council seat.

References

• Profile, bbc.co.uk; accessed 14 May 2016.
• , aims.niassembly.gov.uk accessed 7 February 2017