UKIP has become the first Unionist party to nominate a candidate to fight the Westminster election in May.
Henry Reilly, who last year topped the poll in the Mournes area in the election to the Newry, Mourne and Down Council, will be the party’s flag bearer in the May 7 poll.
There is no chance of a Unionist winning the election — Margaret Ritchie is well ahead as favourite to retain the seat for the SDLP — but with an Assembly election in 2016 there is great interest in the performance of the Unionist parties in May.
Although is has yet to be announced, veteran DUP politician and MLA, Jim Wells, will not be running in the general election this year. The party is believed to be preparing to announce the candidacy of another Mourne councillor, Glynn Hanna, who is also a member of the Newry, Mourne and Down council.
A new face will also be featuring in the election for the Ulster Unionists. In 2010 the Westminster election was contested for the UUP by the popular John McCallister but after he left the party to form an ill-fated partnership with Basil McCrea in NI21, the party has been left without an obvious choice as a candidate.
It is strongly rumoured that another Mourne councillor, Harold McKee, will be unveiled as the party’s candidate in the forthcoming poll.
Although he has not formally announced his intentions, it is believed McCallister will not stand in the general election.
Reilly, himself a former Ulster Unionist councillor, has a huge personal vote in the Mourne area which will form the core of
his bid to win the Unionist contest on May 7. In the council election he topped the poll with 1,964 votes, 118 votes ahead of the joint UUP team of McKee and Jill Macauley and 612 ahead of Glynn Hanna.
Other candidates who have already been nominated by their parties are Margaret Ritchie (SDLP), Chris Hazzard (Sinn Fein) and Martyn Todd (Alliance).
Reilly said he is “honoured and delighted” to be selected as the UKIP candidate.
“I will be working to get the UKIP message out to the electorate that we are the only viable alternative to the parochial voice in the wilderness parties that either boycott Parliament or have little or no say if they attend,” he said.
“UKIP has a vision for the UK as a self governing country that is independent and free from the dictatorial and distant rule from Brussels that is so very damaging for our farmers, fishermen, business community and the general population of South Down.
“We have seen the public desire to retain the Downe Hospital to be retained as a community asset yet few people realise that EU directives like the working time directive and the Health and Safety Directives that are imposed by the EU make it virtually impossible to keep sub regional hospitals open, regardless of the desires of the local community.”
Mr. Reilly said UKIP is the only party that has pledged to take the UK out of the EU and thereby lift the “unnecessary rules and regulations” that deny people much needed hospitals like the Downe.
“It is a fact that Stormont Ministers have in the past stated that 75% of the laws enacted at the Assembly are simple transpositions of EU law into Northern Ireland and it is unfortunately laughable to see the likes of the Assembly’s Sinn Fein Agriculture Minister attend farmer and Fishermen meetings to hear their concerns when she has virtually no power to amend any of the EU regulations that are damaging livelihood’s.
“Then we see the farce of the DUP pretending to be anti-EU while their leader makes speeches in Brussels calling Brussels a loyal friend of Northern Ireland,” he said.
“It is a fact that a vote for the same old parties will result in the same failure and stagnation and only a vote for UKIP is a vote for real change.”