Loyalist ceasefire go-between backing UUP

The Reverend Chris Hudson said he is canvassing for UUP South Belfast candidate Stephen McCarthy because “although I am not a cultural unionist I am pro-Union”.

Dr Hudson said: “What is a real unionist? There are certain people saying Doug Beattie and Stephen McCarthy are not real unionists but if someone like myself given my background can support Northern Ireland staying within the United Kingdom is that not unionist?

“There should be no gatekeepers on who is a unionist, nobody owns unionism. There are people out there even from nationalist backgrounds like Stephen who like this place and feel a proud sense of coming from Northern Ireland.

“Yet sometimes they feel they are excluded because there is some kind of exclusive concept of what it means to be unionist. I think Stephen breaks that exclusion wall down just as I think Doug Beattie has done.”

The ex-Irish trade union official continued: “What Northern Ireland really needs is people who are willing to stand up and say, ‘I want to make Northern Ireland work’. In order to do that you have got to believe that this is a good place and Stephen has convinced me of that in his message.”

He described his work for the UUP candidate as a continuation of his long relationship with unionists and loyalists stretching back to 1993 when he helped organise the first clandestine talks between the UVF and Irish government representatives.

Dr Hudson, who ministers at the All Soul’s Church in Belfast’s Elmwood Avenue, was joined on the canvass by ex-PUP councillor Dr John Kyle.