Jim Allister responds to Nigel Farage endorsing DUP candidates by saying TUV seeks endorsement of ordinary voters

TUV leader Jim Allister has said it is the endorsement of the voters which his party is seeking, after Nigel Farage endorsed two rival DUP candidates. Picture:Stephen Hamilton Photography

The TUV boss claimed that the endorsement isn’t “compatible” with a conversation he had with Mr Farage just last week, after he became Reform’s latest leader.

In a statement on Monday afternoon, Jim Allister said: ​“TUV entered an electoral arrangement with Reform UK in good faith. We have kept faith with that agreement.

“The comments by Mr Farage today are, of course, disappointing and not compatible with the content of a conversation I had with him last week.

“The endorsement that TUV seeks in this election is that of ordinary voters who know who has from the start told them the truth about the Union-dismantling Protocol, while the DUP tried to hoodwink them with false claims that they had got rid of the Irish Sea border.”

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster yesterday Ian Paisley said he had built a relationship with Nigel Farage over many years.

He would not say initially say precisely when the endorsement from Nigel Farage came.

"I think it clears up some of the confusion about how Jim maybe oversold what he had”, he said.

Challenged on that point by presenter Declan Harvey, Mr Paisley said “It’s in tatters tonight. There isn’t a deal, I think that’s the bottom line. I notice what the electoral commission said at the weekend. They said that the TUV – Reform label was misleading to voters. And I think that has been the case.

“People have seen through this for a long time, and I must say I welcome what Nigel has said and I welcome the endorsement”.

Pushed on when the endorsement from Mr Farage was received, Mr Paisley said: “About 70 hours. Two or three days, that would be right”.

On Jim Allister’s statement that the endorsement didn’t tally with a conversation he’d had with the Reform leader, Mr Paisley said: “If he has been misled, or has misled himself, or believed he had something that he didn’t have well that’s for him to explain” but Nigel Farage has endorsed his candidacy.