Sylvia Hermon

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Sylvia, Lady Hermon MP

Spokesperson for Home Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 1995
Preceded by	Robert McCartney
Constituency	North Down (MP)

Born	August 11, 1955 (1955-08-11) (age 52) Castlecaulfield, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
Political party	Ulster Unionist Party
Spouse	Sir Jack Hermon
Website	http://www.sylviahermon.co.uk/

Sylvia, Lady Hermon (née Paisley) (born 11 August 1955) is a Ulster Unionist Party politician and Member of Parliament for the Northern Ireland constituency of North Down. She is married to Sir Jack Hermon, former Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Born Sylvia Eileen Paisley in Castlecaulfield, Dungannon, County Tyrone, she went to Dungannon High School before studying Law at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, obtaining a First and the highest mark in her year.^[1] Hermon went on to lecture in Law at the Queen's University of Belfast at the same time as David Trimble. She did not enter politics until 1998 when she joined the Ulster Unionist Party, having been impressed by the role the UUP played in negotiating the Belfast Agreement.^{[citation needed]} She rose to a place on the party Executive by the following year.^{[citation needed]}

Hermon was chosen as UUP candidate for the North Down constituency to contest the 2001 general election and went on to defeat the incumbent Robert McCartney by over 7,000 votes. During the election she would garner the support of the local branch of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland who withdrew their own candidate.^{[citation needed]}

Hermon became Chair of the North Down branch of the UUP in 2001 and held this position until 2003. In 2001 she was also appointed UUP Spokesperson for Youth and Women's Issues, Home Affairs and Trade and Industry. She subsequently lost the Trade and Industry portfolio and took responsibility for Culture, Media and Sport in 2002. Outside of the UUP, Hermon has also been involved in policing support and pensioners' rights campaigns. In Parliament, Hermon has established herself as an independently minded politician, in some instances voting against the prevalent beliefs of fellow unionist MPs, including her decision to vote against the replacement of the Trident Nuclear Weapons System and also to repeal Section 28, legislation that prevented public discussion of homosexuality in schools.^[2]

Hermon was the only Ulster Unionist to be returned to Westminster in the 2005 general election and as a result figured largely in consideration for who would succeed David Trimble as party leader.^{[citation needed]}

Initially considered to be amongst the front-runners, Hermon eventually declined the opportunity, feeling that she could not combine it with her care duties for her husband, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, and instead supported the unsuccessful bid of Alan McFarland.^{[citation needed]}