Posts Tagged ‘unionist unity’

East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson has said that a united unionist candidate in the Fermanagh South Tyrone constituency will be an encouragement to all unionists.

Rodney Cooper has been chosen to stand in the constituency and the independent candidate has backing from both the DUP and UUP.

East Antrim DUP candidate Sammy Wilson said:

“Unionists have been crying out for their representatives to work more closely together and the DUP has been to the fore in campaigning for agreed candidates in the seats of Fermanagh South Tyrone and South Belfast.

Sammy Wilson has echoed calls made by Peter Robinson for unionist parties to work together to help increase unionist representation.

On Monday the MP said:

“Assuming the general election is held on 6th May there are 36 days until nominations for the Westminster election close. The DUP wants to work with the UUP so that Unionist representation at Westminster can be increased and I hope that by the time nominations close we have a single unionist candidate nominated in seats that unionists have lost to nationalists.

I don’t think that any of us who went to Hatfield House for talks last weekend were in any way surprised at the attention which the event attracted when it became public knowledge. There is nothing that excites the press more than the discovery of an event about which they were not notified or which they failed to detect before it happened. Needless to say when there are a number of people involved and when they have to report back to their parties, it is not long before bits of news filter out and the speculation frenzy starts. What surprised me is that it took so long.