Letter from PUP leader: It is time that unionists put country before party

The call for unionist unity in the News Letter by Carla Lockhart MP is to be welcomed (‘DUP conference hears plea for unionist unity from Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart ,’ October 14).

Divided unionism does indeed demoralise people making them stay at home non-voters. Surely now is the time for a unionist convention/forum which my party has been calling for since 2019. This should embrace all forms of unionism and loyalism to formulate a strategy and to pave a path forward that all can buy into.

Lord Carson and Sir James Craig did exactly this before the covenant was signed, before the formation of the UVF, before a single rifle was smuggled into Larne; they knew exactly what they were doing and the direction in which they were going.

United unionism is an awesome force but to get there we must have a clear-cut strategy. It is surely time for people to put ‘Country Before Party’.

Councillor Russell Watton, Progressive Unionist Party leader