Boyd Black

Anglo-Irish Agreement

In 1986, Black stood in the Fulham by-election in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

Mr Boyd Black, an economics lecturer at Queen's University, Belfast, has no formal links with the two Unionist parties, but his entry into the contest is designed to damage Tory prospects.

The decision to ask Mr Black, who has campaigned for the British Labour Party to organize in Northern Ireland, to stand was made after an independent anti-EEC 'Conservative' candidate withdrew.

Mr Black's decision to stand is not part of the overall 'loyalist' campaign to wreck the agreement, but is being backed by Mr John Taylor, Official Unionist MP for Strangford.

In contrast to the Times, The Guardian's account linked Black more closely to the overall unionist campaign:

Ulster Unionists are fielding a candidate in next month's byelection in Fulham, west London, as the opening shot in a campaign to embarrass the Government and secure a wider audience for their opposition to the Anglo-Irish agreement.

A lecturer from Queen's University, Belfast, Mr Boyd Black, is to stand in Fulham under the label 'Democratic Rights for Northern Ireland.'

Mr John Taylor, the Official Unionist MP for Strandford, and organiser of the campaign, said the aim was to highlight the denial to the people of Ulster of the same parliamentary rights enjoyed by the rest of the United Kingdom.