Devenney warns on Assembly elections

The DUP candidate who contested the Westminster election in Foyle, Maurice Devenney has said he wants to thank the thousands of voters who backed him.

But he warned that, when William Hay, the current Assembly Speaker, contests the Assembly elections next year, there should be no other unionist in the field.

Mr Devenney said: “Once again there has been a strong DUP vote in Foyle, even taking into account the loss of Claudy and Banagher to East Londonderry and the leakage of tactical votes to the SDLP.

“Next year there will be an Assembly election in May and with Claudy and Banagher out of the equation, there are fewer votes available for a unionist candidate to win a seat. We have said for some years that there is only one winnable unionist seat in Foyle, and that will be even more the case next year, because of the loss of unionist voters in Claudy and Banagher.

“Make no mistake, it’s vital that William Hay is given a free run: he has proved that he can unite the unionist vote and that he is prepared to work hard on behalf of his constituents.

“If we want to secure unionist representation in Foyle, there must be just one candidate or we risk throwing the seat away to the SDLP or Sinn Fein. Next year, I think there is a very strong argument for unionists to look at a co-ordinated effort to secure the one winnable seat.”