Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has given his personal backing to two DUP candidates in the forthcoming general election despite his party’s alliance with the rival Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) party.
Mr Farage told PA news agency he wanted to “make it clear that, whilst there have been negotiations going on in previous times, I will personally be endorsing Ian Paisley and Sammy Wilson”.
Mr Farage said “new leadership brings new change”, adding that “I wish the TUV well, but I’m gonna stand up to support Sammy Wilson and Ian Paisley as people I fought with all through the Brexit years”.
In a joint statement, Mr Paisley and Mr Wilson welcomed Mr Farage’s support, describing it as “embarrassing” for the TUV leader, Jim Allister.
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Mr Allister said Mr Farage’s comments were “disappointing and not compatible with the content of a conversation I had with him last week”.
Both long-standing DUP MPs, Mr Wilson and Mr Paisley are standing for re-election in East Antrim and North Antrim respectively.
Mr Allister is standing against Mr Paisley in North Antrim, while in East Antrim the TUV is fielding Matthew Warwick.
A photograph of Mr Farage alongside Mr Paisley appears on the DUP politician’s election leaflet.
Under former leader Richard Tice, Reform UK announced an electoral partnership with the TUV earlier this year.
The TUV had applied to describe its candidates as TUV/Reform UK on ballot papers, but this was rejected by the Electoral Office.
Mr Allister said the TUV had “entered an electoral arrangement with Reform UK in good faith. We have kept faith with that agreement”.
“The endorsement that TUV seeks in this election is that of ordinary voters who know who has from the start told them the truth about the union-dismantling protocol, while the DUP tried to hoodwink them with false claims that they had got rid of the Irish Sea border,” Mr Allister said.
Mr Paisley and Mr Wilson said the Reform UK leader had “recognised that on the big issues we could be relied upon”, rather than Mr Allister, and it was “clear the TUV-Reform UK relationship is non-existent”.
Given this, they said, “it’s time for TUV to drop the Reform UK branding”.
An influential right-wing politician, Mr Farage was a leading pro-Brexit voice in the UK and founder of the UK Independence Party (Ukip) and the Brexit Party, which subsequently rebranded itself as Reform UK.
A presenter on GB News, he placed third in the ITV reality TV show I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here in December, and became leader of Reform UK – and an election candidate – earlier this month.
He is standing for election in the Clacton constituency in Essex.
Voters in Northern Ireland will vote to elect MPs in 18 constituencies in the general election on July 4th.
Nominations have now closed with 136 candidates are standing for election, an increase compared to the 102 who registered in 2019.
Only two parties, the Social Democratic and Labour Party and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, are running candidates in all 18 constituencies. – Additional reporting from PA
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