Dr Bob Nixon was a medical doctor and Ulster Unionist Party MP for North Down, elected in 1953. As a result of his allegations, including one that Unionist politicians had helped convince the Government of Northern Ireland to site the New University of Ulster in Coleraine, rather than their own city, he was suspended from the party. He resigned in 1969 and ran unsuccessfully as a independent unionist in 1970. 

James Chichester-Clark was Chief Government Whip at this time. MP for South Londonderry, he would go on to become Prime Minster of Northern Ireland from 1969-1971.