For some years he was a member of the
Conservative Monday Club (which followed the Tory tradition of being Conservative
and Unionist). In September 1982 he was chairman of the club's Northern Ireland Committee when it published a Policy Paper entitled
Proposals for a Constitutional Settlement [for Ulster]. He served as
Chief Whip of the Ulster Unionist Parliamentary Party from 1987 to 1995. In an attempt to derail multi-party talks initiated by
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Brooke, in February 1990 Ross unsuccessfully introduced a Private Member's Bill, the
Northern Ireland Act 1974 (Amendment) Bill, to provide that laws for Northern Ireland may not be made by (non-amendable)
Orders-in-Council but by (amendable) Bills introduced into the United Kingdom Parliament. He repeatedly called on the Conservative Government to implement its 1979 Conservative general election manifesto commitment to "establish one or more elected regional councils with a wide range of powers over local services" (in Northern Ireland), which had been drafted by the then UUP Leader
Jim Molyneaux and adopted by
Airey Neave as
Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in 1978. Following Molyneaux's retirement as UUP Leader, Ross unsuccessfully stood for the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party in September 1995 and, although a close confidant and supporter of Molyneaux throughout the latter's leadership of the UUP, quickly became a very vocal opponent of the policies and style of newly elected UUP Leader
David Trimble. In June 2008, it was announced as the party president of the
Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV). William Ross stood for the TUV in the
2010 UK general election in the
East Londonderry constituency. ==References==