Nigel Dodds is a key voice for Northern Ireland at Westminster

John Finucane, Belfast’s current lord mayor, is the republican nominee to challenge the DUP deputy leader, as he did in the 2017 general election.

That was a close contest. Mr Dodds won by 2,081 votes, slightly more than the SDLP vote.

The total overall unionist vote and total nationalist vote therefore is about the same.

A curious political feature of recent times in Northern Ireland is that there has been little appetite for a single unionist party. Opposition to such a concept comes from moderate unionists but also more hardline ones, who feel that a liberal unionist option is necessary if soft unionist votes are not to be lost to Alliance.

But despite the reticence about a single party, there would be widespread unionist support for pacts in seats in which the alternative is between a Sinn Fein MP and a unionist one.

Two constituencies where electors face that stark choice are Fermanagh and South Tyrone and North Belfast.

The Ulster Unionist Party has traditionally been strong in the former, and the DUP has held the latter since 2001. It makes sense for them to stand alone in those two areas.

Mr Dodds is one of the most important leaders within unionism of recent decades. Having a first class law degree from Cambridge University means that his academic credentials put him in a small minority even in the House of Commons, which has many legal high fliers. He was thus always likely to command respect among influential MPs.

But his profile has risen further since the Confidence and Supply agreement with the Tories of the last two years, when he has been both an ambassador for unionism as well as a power broker at a national level.

The date of the coming poll is uncertain but he will need every sympathetic vote going when the date comes. Northern Ireland needs such representation in London.