Election profile: David McNarry, UKIP leader

David McNarry joined UKIP after being expelled from the Ulster Unionist Party

David McNarry has been the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in Northern Ireland since 2013.

The 67-year-old is a former Ulster Unionist, who was at one time chief whip of that party.

He was first elected as an MLA for Strangford for the UUP in 2003 and subsequently re-elected in 2007 and again in 2011.

However, he left the Ulster Unionists - a party he first stood in an election for in 1982 - in acrimonious circumstances in 2012.

Mr McNarry resigned the UUP Stormont whip in January after the then party leader Tom Elliot demoted him from the deputy chair of the education committee.

He also resigned from the UUP's assembly group, but remained a party member.

The Strangford MLA's fall-out with Mr Elliot came after Mr McNarry gave an interview to the Belfast Telegraph detailing discussions between the UUP and DUP about unionist unity.

After Mike Nesbitt replaced Mr Elliot as party leader in March 2012, he said: "I cannot imagine any circumstances under which David McNarry would be back in the Ulster Unionist assembly group of MLAs when I have control of the whip."

Mr McNarry was subsequently expelled from the party in May 2012.

He continued to sit in the assembly as an independent, until he joined UKIP in October of that year, becoming the party's first MLA.

He became leader of the party in 2013.

Mr McNarry with UKIP leader Nigel Farage

He said Northern Ireland was ready for a voluntary coalition with an opposition, adding that the current set-up at Stormont had "served its purpose and passed its sell-by date".

In 2015, Mr McNarry said he had been working for 18 months on the launch of a new Loyalist Community Council, supported by the UDA, the UVF and the Red Hand Commando paramilitary groups, that would explore how the groups would eventually disband.

Later that year, UKIP expelled one of its most high profile figures in Northern Ireland. Henry Reilly was the party's Northern Ireland candidate in last year's European elections, receiving more than 24,000 votes.

In the 2015 Westminster elections, UKIP finished as the highest performing of the non-executive parties in Northern Ireland, receiving 18,324 votes despite only running in 10 of the 18 seats.

Mr McNarry will not be standing in this year's assembly election.