By Julie Waters
THERE is growing speculation that a local councillor could be selected as the Ulster Unionist Party’s North Down candidate in next year’s Assembly election.
Sources have told the Spectator that the Ards Peninsula councillor Pete Wray is likely to replace veteran politician Alan Chambers as the UUP’s preferred candidate on the electoral paper.
Mr Wray, who is currently chair of the Ards and North Down Policing and Community Safety Partnership, was first elected to council in 2023. He is also manager of Ards and North Down Alternatives, a community-based restorative justice organisation.
This latest development comes as the North Down Ulster Unionist Association is set to begin its selection process later this week, when candidates will be invited to put their names forward as possible candidates.
However, sources have stressed that Mr Wray’s nomination is not a ‘done deal’ as his candidacy must be agreed by both the association and the party officers.
It is further understood that once the selection process is completed the North Down UUP candidate will be announced later this month or in July.
However, just last month, Assemblyman Mr Chambers issued a defiant message to the Spectator that he would continue to represent the people of North Down.
Mr Chambers made it clear he intended to continue to serve local constituents despite being told on two separate occasions that the UUP would not select him to stand in next year’s Stormont elections.
Mr Chambers, who at age 78 is the Father of the House at Stormont, was first elected as an independent councillor in 1992, and has served 10 years as a UUP assemblyman.
The well-respected politician could opt to run as an independent in next year’s Stormont election if an olive branch is not offered by the UUP; however Mr Chambers has yet to publicly declare his intentions. UUP party leader Jon Burrows confirmed in an interview with the BBC last week that he felt that Mr Chambers should not have gone to the Spectator with the story and should have instead gone through the party press office.
It is understood Mr Burrows met with the North Down Assemblyman after the story was published. These developments come at a difficult time for the wider Ulster Unionist Party as Mr Burrows has come under renewed pressure in recent weeks.
Last weekend’s shock resignation of Upper Bann Assemblyman Doug Beattie is a further blow for the party.
Like Mr Chambers, the former UUP leader had also been facing the prospect of being deselected by his constituency association ahead of the next assembly election.
During an interview with BBC Radio Ulster’s The Nolan Show earlier this week, Mr Beattie said there was ‘an insidious element within the party who have been continually briefing against me with regards to selections and other issues’.
Mr Beattie went on to say there are ‘serious problems’ within the UUP and with a ‘toxic atmosphere’ having a ‘detrimental effect on many people’.
