Newly honoured Dame Arlene Foster has revealed she is working on a "new movement" to advocate for Northern Ireland remaining part of the United Kingdom.
The former DUP leader said the initiative would "disrupt the narrative that a united Ireland is inevitable" and "look to the future in terms of our precious Union".
She said the movement was not a new political party and she would reveal more about her plans later in the year.
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The former First Minister was speaking after receiving a damehood in the Queen's Platinum Jubilee birthday honours list.
Dame Arlene, who was ousted as DUP leader last year after an internal party revolt, said she is "advocating on behalf of the Union now in a non-party political way".
"I think it's important that I reach right across the United Kingdom to do that," she told BBC Radio Ulster.
"And I have been working on a new movement, which I will talk to you about later on in the year, which is seeking to advocate for the Union, seeking to disrupt the narrative that a united Ireland is inevitable, which of course it's not - and seeking to look to the future in terms of our precious Union.
"It's not a new party, it's a new movement - and something that I look forward to speaking about in the future."
Dame Arlene argued it is "economically, politically, socially, culturally, better to be in the United Kingdom".
She said: "I think there's much to do in terms of the Union. I haven’t gone away in terms of advocating for the Union.
"I will continue to do that, hopefully on a UK level, and to allow people to know why the Union is something that will exist into the future, is economically, politically, socially, culturally, better to be in the United Kingdom.
"And I'll continue to put a positive case for the Union wherever I am."
Dame Arlene backed the DUP in May's Assembly election campaign but confirmed she is no longer a party member.
The poll saw Sinn Féin overtake the DUP to become the largest party at Stormont for the first time.
Asked about the DUP's election performance, Dame Arlene said: "I thought given some of the predictions, that the DUP in terms of percentage polling, actually did quite well given everything that had happened.
"I think that obviously some very good people were lost, but actually Sinn Féin did not increase the number of people that they had."
She defended DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson blocking the restoration of Stormont over Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol, saying the Irish Sea trading arrangements are "causing huge damage at present".
She added: "Sir Jeffrey made his strategy very clear in September of last year.
"He said that if the Protocol was not dealt with he would have to take action. Unfortunately he wasn't listened to and therefore he has had to take action.
"I hope very much that the institutions will be back up and running, as I think everybody does, very soon.
"But in order to do that we have to deal with the elephant in the room which is of course the Protocol."
Dame Arlene argued the boycott was different from when Sinn Féin collapsed power-sharing in 2017 over the RHI controversy and calls for Irish language legislation, which the DUP had strongly criticised at the time.
"Because unlike when we are dealing with identity and culture and language, we are now dealing with the very fundamentals of the Belfast Agreement," she said.
"And sometimes I listen to some of the other parties talking about the 'majority are in favour of the Protocol', and the 'majority' are in favour of X, Y and Z. What ever happened to power-sharing?
"What ever happened to having the consent of both sides of the community to move forward and have that effective power-sharing? That is what we should be concentrating on now."
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