Kate Hoey: Jim Allister is one of the most principled, cleverest politicians but I've no desire to join TUV or any other unionist party

Baroness Hoey, who was born in Mallusk and later became MP for Vauxhall in London, has spoken alongside TUV leader Jim Allister at anti-protocol rallies throughout Northern Ireland.

Asked on BBC News NI's Red Lines podcast by Mark Carruthers if she’d ever consider joining Mr Allister’s party or any unionist party in Northern Ireland she said: "I’m now living in Northern Ireland, I enjoy being able to go back to London and see people and get involved in the House of Lords but I have no desire to be a member of the Assembly.

“I’m very proud to work with anyone in Northern Ireland who wants to protect the Union, fight for our identity as part of the United Kingdom because economically and socially and all sorts of ways we are so much better off.”

She continued: "I actually think Jim Allister is one of the most principled, cleverest politicians in Northern Ireland and thought so when he was in European Parliament as well, but I have differences with Jim on lots of social issues.

"I have differences with even the DUP on certain things and I certainly have differences with [UUP leader] Doug Beattie on a lot of things.”

She commented: "What I've always campaigned for – and am still campaigning for – is for the Labour Party to allow proper membership in Northern Ireland".

Baroness Hoey began her career on the political left – opposing internment without trial and was a member of the International Marxist Group – now on the right, she’s a committed Brexiteer and defender of Northern Ireland’s place in the Union.

She said: “I was 18, 19 when I was involved in left wing politics, now I’m 77, I think in those years you do tend to change your views.

"People can get labelled from what they did when they were very young and they can change quite a lot.”

She added: “I think my principals stayed the same, I’ve always wanted everyone in Northern Ireland to be equal, to be treated the same.

“I’ve always tried to understand why people would want a united Ireland but I’ve never quite felt that was how I would like to live. I’m never considered myself Irish. I’m from Northern Ireland so I’m British.”

In the interview Baroness Hoey said she admired Irish political activists Bernadette McAliskey, Eamonn McCann and Michael Farrell despite having different views from herself: “Obviously I would not support or like anyone who was deliberately out to kill or main someone.

“That’s where the whole question of democracy becomes so important – where people change things in a way that is actually taking people with them, and not destroying people.”

Baroness Hoey, who left Labour in 2019, said of the possibility of Labour winning the next general election: "I don't think anyone in Northern Ireland from a pro-union background should fear Keir Starmer being the next prime minister of the United Kingdom," she said.

"Indeed quite often labour governments have been more willing to stand up to the IRA. Peter Mandelson was one of the best secretary of states we ever had.”