Letter: Unionists might find electoral solutions if they look Down Under and follow the ‘Teal Independent’ model

The 2024 Westminster elections were clearly an alarm siren for unionist politics – Lagan Valley now has an Alliance MP, North Belfast and Fermanagh and South Tyrone are firmly in Sinn Féin’s grasp, and seats like East Londonderry could now be regarded as ‘marginal’ seats for the UK Parliament. The answer is to follow the ‘Teal Independent’ model in Australia.

In Australian politics, the pro-monarchy, conservative Liberal Party has an electoral pact with the rural National Party, simply known as ‘the Coalition’. When both parties win the federal election, they form a federal coalition with a Liberal Prime Minister and a National Deputy Prime Minister. Such an arrangement here between Unionists requires 100% agreement on policy, which is not a plausible outcome.

In Australia, the Liberals lost office in 2022 after nine years in power with their National Party colleagues. In that election, the Liberal strongholds in cities such as Melbourne and Sydney were lost to ‘Teal Independents’ – a group of ex-Liberal Party members who disagreed with Liberal policy on climate change and social issues. They have unseated big names, including a former Prime Minister – Tony Abbot – in 2019.

Why did so many ‘Teals’ win seats to the Australian Parliament? They are ‘soft’ non-party Liberals who represent Liberal constituencies – pulling together Liberal, Labor, Green and smaller party preferences together, which a Liberal Party candidate couldn’t do. Alex Easton romped home in North Down against Stephen Farry as an ‘Independent Unionist’ – a DUP-type candidate who could garner support from outside the DUP voter base because he was not inside the DUP party at the time.

Seats like North Belfast are not easy victories for one unionist party anymore – they could be for one Independent Unionist candidate who has no party affiliation and could garner a broad base of support from the electorate to win a seat in the House of Commons. Alex Easton has proven it can work in North Down and Claire Sugden has indicated she wants to try it out in East Londonderry with a strong chance she could win if the unionist parties stand aside. Maybe unionism’s ‘Teal’ moment is about to begin.

Edward Ferrin, Belfast BT14