DUP defector Wells in tune with our thinking: TUV leader Allister

Mr Allister described the South Down DUP veteran as “in tune with TUV thinking”.

Mr Wells was asked yesterday if he would join TUV and he replied: “I would be delighted to become a member if they will have me. They do however have high standards!”

On the prospect of the former DUP Stormont health minister joining his party, Mr Allister said: “Jim is somebody who has stood on the protocol issue in the right place with me.

“I do recall on the infamous day of the 8th December 2020 when every other unionist MLA to their shame voted through 45 EU enabling regulations to bed in the protocol including the very one that bans British soil from British Ulster and Mr Wells and I were the only two who spoke and voted against it.

“I can still remember the horror of watching every other unionist MLA trooping through with Sinn Fein and the other ruthless implementers to do that. Which was one of the first major missteps of unionism in terms of allowing the protocol to bed in.

“This was followed up by Mr Poots building the ‘Poots Posts’, but Mr Wells has always seen through those issues and that has been good and I stood with him on many of the social issues as well.

“So, Jim must make his own decisions about where his political future lies but he would seem to be in tune in significant respects with much of TUV thinking.

“And if he thinks that it’s appropriate to put himself forward and involve himself with us then the TUV will obviously receive and consider his application.”

The TUV leader added: “I think Jim is largely on the same page as TUV and while there may be some nuances I am in the business of growing and building the party so he would seem to me to be a suitable applicant .”

At the start of the week Mr Wells resigned from the DUP after serving for 46 years as a party representative at council level and in the Stormont Assembly.

He said he was leaving the DUP after he claimed senior party officers had “enforced and imposed” a candidate in South Down whose values he didn’t share.

Mr Wells also endorsed TUV candidate Harry McKee for the South Down constituency – Mr McKee is a former member of the UUP.

The DUP candidate selected to stand for the party on May 5, Diane Forsythe, has contested the constituency before in the 2017 general election.

In a DUP election video to introduce their South Down candidate Mr Wells is seen standing beside Ms Forsythe and giving her his fulsome support.

He refers to Ms Forsythe as “an excellent candidate, she is young, she is able, her roots are in the Mourne community, she is a family person and she is also a marathon runner so this election can be a marathon as well so she will enjoy that. She is very fit and able for that, and we are looking forward to it and her to go out there and maximise the unionist vote in South Down”.

Ms Forsythe secured 8,867 votes in the 2017 general election increasing the party’s share of the vote in South Down by 9.3%.

Mr Wells has claimed the South Down DUP association were, like him, opposed to Ms Forsythe being nominated this time around for the Assembly election.

He admitted that he would have remained in the DUP if the party had selected his ally Edwin Poots as its South Down candidate.

Mr Wells had been a strong backer of Mr Poots in the internal coup that toppled Arlene Foster as party leader.

Mr Poots was later elected leader but his tenure only lasted three weeks before he was replaced by the current leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson who is himself a strong support of Diane Forsythe.

Mr Wells has denied accusations from the former first minister that he opposed Ms Forsythe’s selection because he has a problem with women’s participation in local politics.

A number of DUP veterans from the constituency have contacted the News Letter this week to express their support for Ms Forsythe and to challenge Mr Wells to explain why he backed her candidacy in 2017 but now opposed her selection five years later.

Mr Wells has yet to respond to their question.