DUP celebrate but UUP see vote halved

DUP celebrate but UUP see vote halved

13 May 2015

THE DUP’S Jim Shannon retained his Westminster seat in emphatic style.

The veteran politician increased his personal vote and polled three times as many votes as his nearest rival, Ulster Unionist Robert Burgess.

The DUP man polled 15,053 votes which represented a 44.4 percentage share of the overall vote. Mr Burgess polled just 4,868 votes which was a huge decrease of just over 5,000 on the party’s 2010 performance when its candidate was current UUP leader Mike Nesbitt.

A number of UUP members were left shocked at the party’s performance in a constituency it previously dominated with Lord Kilclooney. UUP sources attributed the party’s poor showing in Strangford on the choice of candidate as Mr Burgess lives in Saintfield, suggesting he was “too remote” for the Newtownards-dominated constituency.

Elsewhere, Alliance’s Kellie Armstrong saw the party vote increase by almost 14 per cent in Strangford with her 4,687 votes doubling the party’s performance in 2010, leaving it just 181 behind the UUP.

Portaferry businessman Joe Boyle, increased the SDLP vote in the constituency, increasing it from 2,164 five years ago to 2,335, with UKIP’s Joe Jordan, a former president of Belfast Chamber of Commerce, finishing in fifth place with 2,237 votes.

Conservative candidate Johnny Andrews polled 2,167 votes with the TUV’s Stephen Cooper securing 1,701 votes. Sinn Fein candidate Sheila Bailie, mother of Newry, Mourne and Down Council chairwoman Naomi Bailie, polled 876 votes.

But it was Mr Shannon’s performance which dominated the staunchly unionist Strangford constituency. The newly returned MP fought back tears during an emotional speech at the count centre in Bangor during the early hours of last Friday morning.

The DUP man dedicated his Westminster re-election to his father Derek who passed away 10 weeks ago and praised the people of Strangford as the “salt of the earth.”

As the ballot boxes from around the constituency were opened and staff started to count the votes, it was clear Mr Shannon was the runaway winner, with the DUP continuing its dominance of the constituency once the stronghold of the Ulster Unionists.

As he gathered his thoughts before his acceptance speech, the DUP man was temporarily lost for words as his mother Mona and wife Sandra, friends, colleagues and party supporters looked on.

“This is a very poignant occasion, those who know me know my father passed away 10 weeks ago. It’s the first election I’ve had where my dad hasn’t been there to support me, I’m very conscious that my mum is here. Thank you,” he said before pausing, overcome with emotion.

“I would like to thank the good people of Strangford. The Strangford folk are the salt of the earth and today they proved they are the salt of the earth. I want to thank them for that,” he continued.

Referring to long weeks of canvassing, Mr Shannon joked it was the “best diet regime” revealing he had lost almost a stone through walking. He also paid tribute to the other Strangford candidates saying it had been a “very clean fight.”

Mr Burgess, who is a member of  Newry, Mourne and Down Council, thanked the party for providing him with the opportunity to run in Strangford and those who voted for him. He said he was “delighted” with the support he received.

The UUP man said while he was “not successful on this occasion,” the Ulster Unionist Party is very much in business and believes its chance will come again. 

Thanking his election agent and the many party volunteers who “worked tirelessly” during his campaign, Mr Burgess made it clear that any notion the Ulster Unionist Party is in some kind of terminal decline has been proven wrong with the success of Tom Elliott and Danny Kinahan who are heading to Westminster.

Kellie Armstrong spoke of her delight at the surge in support for Alliance, describing her vote as “a fantastic achievement for the team.”

She added: “I am a councillor, not an MLA, but the high profile that this has given me bodes well for next year (the Assembly elections). That was one of the key aims we had as a party. We also wanted to make sure that women candidates were not just in seats we were going to lose, this was to raise our profiles and to test the water. It’s very obvious Strangford has welcomed our message and a woman.”