Former TUV councillor urges unionists to back Shannon

By Lesley Walsh

 

A FORMER TUV councillor is urging unionists in the Strangford constituency to throw their weight behind the DUP’s Jim Shannon, who is fighting for a fifth general election victory on July 4.

Stephen Cooper, who formerly represented the Comber area on Ards and North Down Council, has said he was ‘one hundred per cent’ behind the sitting MP who marks 40 years in politics next year.

His comments come after the TUV signalled its intention to contest the Strangford constituency for the first time, following its pact with the Reform UK party.

Mr Cooper, who served as the TUV’s only representative ever elected to the borough, from 2014 to 2019, resigned from the party in February last year following a complaint from a female party member alleging harassment.

Speaking this week, Mr Cooper said he was ‘100%’ urging unionists to back Mr Shannon to avoid a split in the unionist vote for the constituency.

Giving his perspective on the impact on Northern Ireland of the alliance between his former party and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, Mr Cooper said he sees ‘parallels in GB of Tories suffering the same fate as unionism in Northern Ireland due to vote splitting’.

He said the resulting split of the unionist vote would ‘hand the Alliance a huge boost’, with the potential of ‘gifting Westminster seats to Alliance in several key constituencies’, including Strangford.

Mr Cooper said the decision by the TUV/Reform merger to run candidates throughout Northern Ireland could be detrimental to unionism in general which has ‘potential of giving up to three or four seats to the Alliance party’. 

The TUV man flying the flag for his party in Strangford, Ron McDowell, said Mr Cooper had given the party ‘good service’ but that the party’s ‘own point of view is pretty consistent’.

“Stephen left TUV under a cloud when he chose to resign rather than face a party investigation into allegations that he harassed a female colleague and I cannot help but think that his comments are born out of bitterness rather than a principled position.

“At the end of this election proponents of a unified Ireland will be taking a tally of every single vote before making a call for a border poll. The TUV brings tens of thousands of voters to the ballot box and if we do indeed stand aside then there will also be tens of thousands of TUV voters who will simply stay at home. That will increase calls for a border poll and Stephen should know this.

“The second point is the threat of losing Unionist seats. TUV are not standing against the DUP or any other party, we are standing for the full re-integration of Northern Ireland into the UK, against the Union busting Sea Border.

“This is a position Stephen once stood for and if he has since accepted the border along with Jim Shannon then our parting of ways was for the best for both of us.”