Resignation over election candidate selection controversy

A FORMER Ulster Unionist councillor from Castlederg has resigned from the party over its decision to go ahead with the selection of Ulster Farmers’ Union president, Ian Marshall, as its candidate in the forthcoming Assembly election.

Andy McKane, who is also chairman of the Omagh and Fermanagh Unison branch, told the UlsterHerald of his ‘deep disappointment’ that the party had gone against the wishes of its West Tyrone Constituency Association which had previously selected him as the preferred candidate.

Ian Marshall is a former member of the Seanad in Dublin, and Mr McKane said the decision had left him no other option but to leave the party. Mr McKane said the decision is ‘political suicide’ by the UUP.

“I just cannot understand why my selection wasn’t considered good enough. I have lived all my life in Castlederg and am well-known there, and in Strabane and in Omagh where I have worked for more than 30 years,” he said.

“Nobody in West Tyrone knows Ian Marshall and Ian Marshall knows nobody in West Tyrone.

“From a Unionist viewpoint, his selection is wrong in my view and was promoted by Sinn Féin. This is someone who sat in the Irish Government and is on record as saying that the Northern Ireland Protocol is here to stay despite UUP policy being that it must go.

“The whole ethos of Unionism is Northern Ireland being part of the UK. That is our stance, and I don’t think Ian Marshall is a Unionist. A Unionist wouldn’t promote a protocol or participate in the Irish Government.”

Mr McKane described the decision as a ‘slap in the face’ to him. He said he would have had no difficulty supporting an alternative candidate, if they had been from West Tyrone.

“There is no substitute for local knowledge. If I go into a shop in Omagh or walk down the Hospital Road, then people will know me,” he added.

“I have raised my concerns with the party leader, Doug Beattie. For me, politics like my work with Unison is about helping the people and securing health and other services only with a wider remit.

“It is hard to accept when people chose me and then I’m not allowed to stand. I had done the heavy lifting in the Westminster election when I increased the UUP vote. It was always my hope to be a candidate for the Assembly election, yet now they are bringing in a complete stranger.”