Linzi McLaren: Former UUP councillor to run for SDLP in next May's Assembly election - after recent defection in the other direction
A former Ulster Unionist councillor who quit the party last year has been unveiled as the SDLP’s candidate for South Antrim in next May’s Assembly election.
Linzi McLaren – who joined under Doug Beattie’s tenure as leader, then quit the party during Mike Nesbitt’s leadership citing concerns about the Irish language and the voice afforded to women in the party.
The news follows a recent defection in the other direction – with former SDLP branch chair in Fermanagh Ciara Dempsey making the leap to the UUP. She will stand for council in the Clogher Valley area.
When the News Letter broke the story of Linzi McLaren’s resignation from the UUP last October, she said that she did not feel that her “progressive aspirations” were supported by colleagues or the party hierarchy.
The former unionist will now stand for the nationalist SDLP. An Instagram post by the SDLP announcing Ms McLaren’s candidacy on Tuesday evening said: “Linzi shares our vision for a new Ireland, with a better Northern Ireland along the way. Let’s go.”
The video had the caption “Preparing for my Netflix documentary on leaving the UUP and running for the SDLP”. The quip accompanied a clip of Ms McLaren sitting down in a chair, as if for a television interview.
Ms McLaren has previously said that some from a traditionally unionist background are “fed up with politics” and are “sitting in the middle waiting for someone to convince them”.
“It is at political unionism’s peril to forget about those people because there are so many of us,” she said.
“Being a Protestant doesn’t automatically make you a Unionist, there are lots of Protestants in that middle ground who would be more than happy to have the conversation about a new Ireland, and actually more than happy to call themselves a nationalist.”
When she was announced, the UUP’s Ciara Dempsey said: “When I left the SDLP I said my values and the direction I wanted to take no longer aligned. I have found that here, and I am glad of it.
“I am proud of the background and values I was brought up with, and in the Ulster Unionist Party I have found a place where I can be proud of that while still working for everyone.
“My friends and neighbours come from all traditions and religions. I don't ask what someone's background is, I ask how I can help”.
Leader Jon Burrows said her decision “says something about the party we are building, and about the confidence unionism can have when it reaches out rather than turns inward”.