Doug Beattie says some voters are 'parochial' and don't like to be 'proven wrong' - and that's why they back the DUP

UUP boss Doug Beattie was questioned by the William Crawley on the BBC's Talkback programme.

When asked by the BBC’s William Crawley if now is not the time for the Ulster Unionists to make a breakthrough against the DUP, when would be the time, Doug Beattie said some voters are “parochial”.

“We also have to remember how sometimes parochial some of our voters are and look, they pick a party and that's who they stick with, or they pick a candidate and that's who they they stick with. You know, so it's changing minds is what has to happen”, he said.

In another part of the interview Mr Crawley asked the UUP boss why his party “never seem to get any kind of credit from unionist voters” for the positions that it takes – even though the DUP sometimes comes around to the position that they originally took, for example, on the Good Friday Agreement.

Doug Beattie said “I think sometimes people don't want to be shown that they were proven wrong. I think sometimes people don't want to be said, actually you have bought back the wrong horse in this race. I don't think people like that. So they kind of stick with where they were and I think that's a difficult thing to change”.

He said his party had made all of the right calls on Brexit, for example, and that the DUP had moved onto Ulster Unionist ground.

A smiling Mr Beattie told the BBC’s Talkback programme: “We have the DUP now literally taking our slogan of ‘Making Northern Ireland Work’ and making it their slogan… that’s fine I don’t have a problem with that, as long as we make Northern Ireland work”.