Gavin Robinson willing to talk about independent candidates - but says unionist infighting doesn't help collective aim
Gavin Robinson has said he’s willing to talk about ideas such as more independent candidates being a route to greater electoral success for unionism – and warned unionist infighting doesn’t help the collective “stated aim”.
DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley said at the weekend that individual parties need to get over themselves and put the country first in future Westminster elections, appearing to hint at support for more independent candidates in certain constituencies.
Party leader Gavin Robinson and Mr Buckley had both singled out the success of Alex Easton in reclaiming the North Down during the DUP conference.
The News Letter asked Mr Robinson about the remarks, and whether greater representation for unionism could be best achieved outside party politics by having more independent candidates.
“I don’t know, we can talk about all of that. I think what is very clear to say is, as it comes to unionist infighting – I’m not interested. I won’t be interested. I don’t go on your pages and the pages of other newspapers continually attacking other unionists because it doesn’t help us. It doesn’t help collectively in what we say is our stated aim. That’s to protect Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom and strengthen those bonds”, he said.
The DUP boss said he hoped others will “engage positively” because the public “recognise the cost of not doing so, as has been demonstrated in the last election”.
Unionism held the same number of seats overall in the general election, however the DUP lost three – to Alliance, the TUV and the Ulster Unionist Party.
Speaking to the News Letter, Jonathan Buckley also said that his party had made mistakes but stopped short of directly criticising its recent deal to restore Stormont as one of them. He said there has been “a lot of things” but wouldn’t get drawn on specifics.
“Whether it was personal scandal for political members, or whether it was different agreements over recent times – whether it was even our conduct internally. The party has to rebalance and recalibrate. I think that people really appreciate and understand politicians that are human, make mistakes – you learn from them, you move forward together”, he said.