Former DUP leader Peter Robinson blasts 'feckless reckless egocentric spoilers' who are splitting the unionist vote

The ex-first minister and party leader from 2008 until 2015 was speaking ahead of Thursday’s election.

Though he mentioned no names, his remarks are likely to be interpreted as a particular swipe at the TUV, which (unlike 2019) is standing in a wealth of constituencies, largely against DUP or UUP rivals.

He said that everyone has a right to stand in a democracy.

“But then there are the spoilers,” he said.

“They are the intentional vote-splitting candidates who can’t win, and they know it.

“But winning is not their aspiration or objective. They are contesting the seat with the deliberate intention of impeding and hindering the main unionist candidate from winning even though they know they are, at one and the same time, helping Sinn Fein and its allies to win.

“When their hatred of another unionist is greater than their love of the Union they should be rejected and despised.

“They are feckless, reckless, and politically blinkered. Whatever we may think of them, the die has been cast, and nominations have closed and the ballot papers printed.

“But that is not the end of the story. Unionist voters can display a sense of wisdom that these self-serving egocentric candidates have not.

“Those who want to knock the pan-nationalism back on its heels, who value the Union and want to see unionism bouncing back have the power to make the difference.

“In constituencies that can be won for unionism, vote only for the only unionist who can win.

“When you go to the polls on Thursday first take ‘the morning after test’.

“How will you feel if you wake up after the count and discover that by either failing to vote or by voting for a fringe unionist candidate you have enlarged the anti-unionist block?”

He also lamented that “large portions of the unionist base are disaffected and disconnected”.

He said: “In some unionist areas, the turnout is half what it is in republican areas. Stay-at-home unionists may learn just how damaging that disengagement has been.”

However, he placed the blame at the feet of politicians.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​