'Closet Tories' didn't vote claims Conservative Party candidate

6 May 2016

CONSERVATIVE candidate Bill McKendry is convinced Strangford has many "closet Tories" who didn't come out to vote.

Disappointed with his elimination at the second stage of the Strangford Assembly count with just 314 votes, the Comber man said the low vote does not make him "any less determined."

Digesting the shock of not attracting more of the 2,167 votes secured by his party colleague Johnny Andrews in last year's Westminster elections, Mr McKendry said he is still convinced of the need to bring national politics to Northern Ireland.

"I am disappointed but it doesn't make me any less determined to move away from Orange and Green," he said. "We have to think of the next generation."

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