Letter: Now that Stormont is decided, unionists must avoid splitting the vote in Westminster election

Now that the entirely sensible decision to re-enter Stormont has been made and the major bone of contention between the DUP and UUP resolved, attention needs to paid to the critical need to agree single candidates for some key seats in the Westminster elections.

First past the post is a system which heavily penalises vote splitting eg the ridiculous loss of North Down in 2019 to Alliance.

North and East Belfast, North Down and Fermanagh spring to mind. Lagan Valley should also be considered. Unnecessary and disastrous seat losses particularly to Alliance, must be prevented at all costs. Unionist vote splitting in tight constituencies is really the height of self harm and action must be taken immediately by the two main parties to prevent this from happening.

Frank McClintock, Lisburn