Stormont needs experienced MLAs such as Jim Wells

Mr Wells has in recent months spoken about his shattering experiences in 2015.

In the run-up to the general election he became embroiled in controversy over his remarks in relation to homosexuality. Meanwhile his wife Grace became seriously ill.

Mr Wells is a longstanding and dedicated elected politician, yet he is only 58. He is unpredictable too, such as his strongly environmentalist views – hardly a mainstream DUP position.

Stormont badly needs experienced MLAs, now that the new approach to double jobbing means that some of the most experienced politicians have opted to stay in Westminster when forced to choose between it and Stormont.

It is a pity that Mr Wells never got a chance to prove himself at health. That department has been run by successive parties and ministers who are fearful of public opinion. Transforming Your Care and all the expert recommendations, going back more than a decade, urging hospital rationalisation have not been fully implemented. It would have been interesting to see if Mr Wells, who had immersed himself in health policy in the preceding years, would have made the tough choices. Unlike politicians who duck such decisions or farm them out to officials, Mr Wells was firm about moving acute stroke services from Daisy Hill Hospital to Craigavon: “I know politicians sometimes can beat about the bush, I am making it absolutely clear to you – there will be no change in that position.”

The gay rows, first at a hustings meeting and then on a doorstep, were overblown. It is absurd police were involved. Mr Wells was elected to the 1982 Assembly the very year that homosexuality was decriminalised in NI, something his party opposed. An MLA who advocated recriminalisation would look extreme, but they should be free to do that and certainly to oppose gay marriage. Voters can then judge them on that and their overall record. Whether Mr Wells is elected is a matter for first his party and then the South Down electorate.