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Ian Paisley jnr to fight for his father’s old seat
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
The DUP has unanimously selected Ian Paisley junior as its candidate to fight for North Antrim in the forthcoming Westminster election.
As expected, at a meeting in Ballymena last night, the son of the former party leader and ex First Minister, who announced his retirement last week, was uncontested in his bid to inherit his father’s seat in May.
Speaking just seconds after the decision was made, Mr Paisley told the Belfast Telegraph he was “very pleased” about the decision and was “looking forward to fighting the election battle”.
He added that he was “very confident” of retaining the seat for the DUP.
His words are a nod to the fact that the seat will be hotly contested, mainly by Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister, who left the DUP to form the TUV in 2007 and who said he intends to stand against his old party in May.
DUP founding father Ian Paisley senior (83) was at his son’s side to congratulate him last night, a week after he announced he would be giving up the North Antrim seat he first won in 1970.
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Darrell, your so funny, you should get a job at the dup press office!
Posted by Markus | 09.03.10, 17:52 GMT
no surprise here ,junior will take his fathers seat and the father will go to the house of lords no crystal ball needed
Posted by hg | 09.03.10, 16:39 GMT
Ian is the best man to hold the seat and build on the monumental work of his father and the constituency association is to be congratulated on the decisive and unanimous way in which they selected their new candidate.
Dr Paisley will of course be a hard act to follow and that prospect is no doubt a humbling one for Ian Paisley Jnr but if anyone can do it and carry forward the unionist agenda at westminster, he can do it.
I am inclined to wonder where Jim Allister gets his stories about DUP splits from, the party is strong and united in north antrim as it is throughout Northern Ireland. Those who were misguided enough to support Jim Allister at the Euro election will return to the DUP and be welcome as the party goes forward to lead unionism into the future.
Posted by Darrell Monteith | 09.03.10, 09:43 GMT