"Mr Allister has already declared his interest in North Antrim. It is thought the TUV will also stand in Lagan Valley, Strangford, East Belfast, East Antrim, South Antrim and in Mid Ulster … "Conspicuously absent were three Belfast constituencies – North, where even Allister realised that a TUV intervention would probably hand the seat to Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly; West, where the TUV would be utterly humiliated; and South, where a TUV intervention could leave the seat in SDLP hands, but they won’t know until they see how the DUP-UUP pact talks turn out.
Also absent, and inexplicably so, was North Down, which forms a core part of the unionist Heimat. On Friday, however, the TUV were good enough to correct its omission from their earlier list. TUV vice-chairman Keith Harbinson said that:
“TUV looks forward to fielding a Traditional Unionist candidate in North Down who will provide a voice for the thousands of Unionists in that constituency who see Sinn Fein/IRA for what they really are”.North Down thus promises to be a very crowded field with, presumably, Hermon herself (standing as an independent), the Tories, the DUP, the TUV, and Alliance. Other also-rans may waste a deposit there too, but it's hard to know why they bother.
3 comments:
I would not be too sure that the DUP will oppose Hermon. Particularly as she is doing such a good job of embarrassing the UUP just now.
I don't think the Alliance Party will put up a candidate against Sylvia Hermon.
picador and hoboroad,
You could both be right, in which case it could come down to a straight Hermon-Parsley fight. Or, as one could put it, the nearest to a Lab-Con fight that NI has ever seen. In such a contest, I would not put any money on Parsley!
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