#EURef Leave campaigns at the UKIP Northern Ireland conference #UKIPNI15

The UKIP Northern Ireland conference was held in the Loughshore Hotel, Carrickfergus yesterday. Attended by Rupert Matthews and Caroline Stephens – campaign managers of the Better Off Out and Leave.EU respectively.

#UKIPNI15 UKIP's B Higginson, Cllr Noel Jordan, David Jones & Donna Anderson with @RupertMatthews & @CasAnnStephens pic.twitter.com/VWTeJASuFo

— Kilsally (Alan Day) (@Kilsally) November 22, 2015

The upcoming EU referendum was the main focus of the conference.

Topics discussed included Trade, the Commonwealth, TTIP, the EU arrest warrant, border controls, ex Servicemen, the Fresh Start Stormont deal & the National Anthem.

David McNarry challenged the DUP & UUP to come off the fence one way or the other and state their position on the EU referendum.  He also called for a victims charter with a proper definition of a victim and criticised the DUP & Sinn Fein – querying what sort of devolved government hands powers back to the Tories in Westminster.

Notably David McNarry was not amongst the 15 candidates selected so far for the Assembly elections in 2016.  Stephen Crosby will instead stand in Strangford (he previously stood in the 2014 NI council elections and in Nottingham North for the 2015 Westminster elections).

UKIP Councillors Noel Jordan, David Jones & Donna Anderson were the first on stage.

Rupert Matthews was next to the stage and he dealt with many of the claims of the `Remain` campaign. He outlined how over half of UK international exports are outside the EU and how as a member of the EU the UK loses out on a seat on the World Trade Organisation despite having the seventh largest economy in the world.

Next up – Caroline Stephens talks about 3 areas where EU legislation impacts on British people (employment, TTIP & human rights) and mentions whilst like the Better Off Out campaign they were at the SNP conference, Leave EU was banned from the Tory conference.

Last up was the speech by David McNarry MLA