The UUP Leader, Steve Aiken sat down with Brendan Hughes from Belfast Live recently to discuss a range of political issues. If you are interested in the full exchange, you can watch it here.
One thing that caught my eye was this part of the interview where Aiken signals a shift away from the approach of his predecessor, Mike Nesbitt, whom readers will remember said he would give his second preference to the SDLP.
However, the current leader, Steve Aiken has a different approach arguing
“Anybody who believes in the Union, I’ll be asking people to vote for them, because things have moved on.”
For those who want a reminder of what Mike Nesbitt was arguing back in 2017, here is what he said during the BBC Leaders debate;
Here was what Mike Nesbitt said about this in 2017. https://t.co/k2iQ8G3DMD pic.twitter.com/OGWpv7Vt75
— David McCann (@dmcbfs) February 7, 2021
In 2017, whilst it was generally derided as a mistake, quite a number of UUP voters followed their leaders advice. The party’s transfers helped the SDLP in Lagan Valley, Easy Derry and Strangford (they just fell short here).
Maybe this was always going to fade back, but the 2022 Assembly Election is shaping up to be areal dog fight between the combined anti protocol forces and those in favour. Recent polls show anti-protocol forces are not getting close to a majority, but with 15 months to go, a lot can happen.
David McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University of Ulster. You can follow him on twitter @dmcbfs
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