DUP and UUP get into dispute over 2024 General Election polling figures from LucidTalk
A dispute has broken out between the UUP and DUP about election polling figures which say the former is leading the latter in the east of the Province.
The DUP said it is "misleading" of the UUP to rely on the polling data, which covers four eastern constituencies: East Antrim, South Antrim, North Down, and Lagan Valley.
That's because the DUP is not standing in one of those constituencies - namely North Down, where it has stepped aside to give ex-DUP man Alex Easton a clearer run against the Alliance Party's Stephen Farry and the UUP's Tim Collins.
The UUP had put out a claim social media advising people to vote for Robbie Butler in Lagan Valley, accompanied by a statement that "Ulster Unionists [are] winning in 'the East' according to poll".
Alongside this was a chart saying 29% of people polled in a recent survey by the firm LucidTalk said they would vote UUP, and 21% said DUP.
The DUP dismissed the poll result in a press release, and said that the UUP's reliance on it was "deeply disappointing" and that the party should “withdraw” the claim.
DUP director of elections Gordon Lyons said: “Clearly the UUP has accepted they can’t win in Lagan Valley when they are reaching for desperate adverts like this.
"On the doorsteps of Lagan Valley, the electorate know that Jonathan Buckley is the only unionist who can win the seat, and ensure the constituency has a strong pro-Union voice in Westminster.”
The UUP responded by saying: "The advertisement does nothing more than reflect the voter intentions as indicated in the most recent LucidTalk poll.
"The Ulster Unionist Party find it strange that the DUP are questioning what is simply fact."
The poll in question was done online on June 8 to 10 – the second such poll LucidTalk has run since the General Election was announced.
LucidTalk on its website says that the poll "models that e.g. Sinn Fein and the TUV aren't running in four constituencies, the DUP aren't running in two etc".
When the DUP's complaints about the results were put to LucidTalk's boss Bill White, he told the News Letter: "This has nothing to do with LucidTalk.
"It is a conversation between the UUP, DUP, and others, about the interpretation of the poll results…
"We, of course, stand-by and confirm those poll results, as the official results for our pre-Westminster Election Poll No. 2.
"The interpretation and analysis of those poll results, and any commentary about those poll results, is an entirely separate issue, and does not concern LucidTalk."