We need more doctors, not talk of border polls: DUP

Mr Middleton singled out the health element of the DUP’s Five Point Plan for Northern Ireland as if “not the sole way to fix the NHS” one that can solve a significant frontline health service problem.

He also urged a halt to Sinn Fein’s “obsessing” about a border poll and called on them to focus on what matters to people.

“Patients aren’t being assessed in a timely manner, the workload is continually expanding and there aren’t sufficient staff to run the service optimally,” he said.

With 90% of all contacts within the NHS taking place at GP surgery level, Mr Middleton said: “The number of patients with multiple long-term conditions is rising with people longer with illness.

“Our Five Point Plan for Northern Ireland focuses on training more general practitioners. We need to address the barriers as to why GPs do not want to take on full-time roles.”

With the election campaign now under way TUV leader Jim Allister officially announced his candidacy yesterday in North Antrim alongside running mate Matthew Armstrong in the constituency.

Speaking at the Braid Centre in Ballymena yesterday afternoon, Mr Allister said the TUV offered voters “certainty and leadership that can be trusted on the big issues” facing Northern Ireland.

The TUV leader continued: “We saw from the beginning the protocol for the Union-dismantling device it is.

“When all other unionists on December 8 2020 were blindly voting in Stormont to implement 45 EU directives to enable the protocol, TUV stood in resolute, though lonely opposition.”