Former senior police officer aiming for meteoric rise to UUP leader
Jon Burrows served as a police officer for 22 years before leaving the PSNI in 2023.
Former senior police officer Jon Burrows is enjoying one of the fastest political rises in Northern Ireland’s history.
From leading police in the region’s second city of Londonderry, Mr Burrows went on to head up the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s discipline branch.
After completing 22 years’ service, he established himself as a political commentator before being co-opted by the Ulster Unionist Party to fill an Assembly seat vacancy in North Antrim last year.
Now he is making a bid to lead that party, and has spoken of ambitions to restore the once leading party of unionism back to the helm.
Originally from Bangor, Co Down, Mr Burrows followed in the footsteps of his father Colin, a former assistant chief constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).
He has also written with pride about his grandfather Stanley Burrows, a D-Day hero.
His profile on the UUP website describes him having working as a police officer nationally, but predominantly in Northern Ireland with the PSNI.
His profile rose as he took up the role of Area Commander in Foyle, and saw threats against police, including in 2012, a plot by dissident republicans, attaching a bomb to a bicycle as part of a trap to kill officers.
He was also based in Derry in 2013 when Constable Philippa Reynolds, 27, tragically died in a crash involving a stolen car.
Speaking in the Assembly in December, he criticised the “paltry sentence” which the driver who was convicted of manslaughter received.
Mr Burrows went on to serve as chief inspector operations for Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon, and finished his policing career as head of the PSNI’s discipline branch.
After leaving the PSNI in 2021, Mr Burrows made a name for himself in speaking out on issues around policing via the Burrows Blog, social media, and both broadcast and print media.
This included blasting the decision to discipline two junior officers after making an arrest following a commemoration for those killed in the loyalist attack at Sean Graham’s bookmakers on the Ormeau Road in 1992 as “one of the worst examples of leadership”.
He has also been critical of Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson.
His path led up the stately Prince of Wales Avenue to Parliament Buildings at Stormont last summer after he passed what the UUP termed a “rigorous internal selection process with independent oversight” to become a North Antrim MLA.
This arose following the resignation of Colin Crawford, and the party then hailed the former’s replacement as an “exceptional individual”.
Over the last six months, Mr Burrows quickly became one of the most outspoken MLAs.
He has been an active member of the Education Committee, but far from limited himself to that policy area.
He has been critical of Sinn Fein, accusing them of “interference in policing”, opposed the “distortion of history” around Northern Ireland’s troubled past, advocated for prison dog Bailey at Magilligan and taken part in some sharp exchanges in the chamber.
During Mr Burrows’ first media interviews as an MLA, he dismissed questions over whether he would like to some day lead the party by saying they were not “serious”.
Less than a year later, he is making a bid, alongside deputy leader hopeful Diana Armstrong, to do just that, describing a need for “fresh talent”.
