'Does Hamilton support agreed candidate?'

In recent times a succession of national opinion polls have shown that the Tory lead over Labour has followed a very clear and uninterrupted trend downwards. It is now consistently placed in single figures with the smallest lead being a mere two per cent in one poll. One recent poll actually suggested that Labour would emerge as the largest party in the next Parliament, falling a tantalising nine seats short of an outright majority. All of this adds up to a very high likelihood that the next general election will result in a hung Parliament.

Imagine then the influence that 12 unionist MPs could exert in such a situation. If the Tories win they are pledged to impose deep, even “savage” cuts. Labour is also likely to cut very deeply following on from the levels of debt it accrued in bailing out the banking system.

Northern Ireland is heavily dependent upon public spending and the public sector. We will need every ounce of leverage that we can muster at the House of Commons. All of this means that it is essential that the unionist parties reach an agreement over co-operation in constituencies such as Fermanagh/South Tyrone and South Belfast.

We know that the DUP has repeatedly offered a deal and stated publicly its willingness to agree such a deal and honour it. We know too that the TUV has spoken of its wish for agreed unionist candidates in such constituencies. Yet every time this issue is raised publicly the UUP’s senior partner, the Tories, issue public statements stating in no uncertain terms that such an agreed position is out of the question, won’t happen, and that they shall field candidates in all 18 constituencies.

While it may be the Tories who are directly blocking and condemning to failure any attempts at achieving this essential and beneficial unionist co-operation, it is also true that the UUP are in a formal, organic, official alliance with them. The UUP leadership is tied to the Conservative Party. The UUP leadership has refused to stand up to the Tories and put the unionists of Fermanagh/South Tyrone and South Belfast first.

This raises very serious questions for every UUP parliamentary candidate. Do they support agreed candidates in these constituencies or do they support the Tories in their public rejection of attempts to secure this?

Here in Upper Bann, Harry Hamilton aka Flash Harry is now the senior Tory/UUP figure in this constituency. He will be the Tory/UUP spokesperson over the next number of weeks. So the issue then is really very simple: does Tory/UUP parliamentary candidate Harry Hamilton support efforts to obtain an agreed candidate in both Fermanagh/South Tyrone and South Belfast or does he support the Tory line of rejecting all such efforts?