Statement by TUV East Antrim candidate councillor Ruth Wilson:
“Nigel Dodds’s comments on the danger of the SNP being in power at Westminster will strike many in Northern Ireland as odd.
“He claims that having the SNP in government or propping up a minority Labour Government would be bad for the UK. I totally agree with Mr Dodds in this respect but I am sure I am not the only person who finds it strange that a party which has elevated Sinn Fein to the heart of government in Northern Ireland should reject any role for the SNP in government at Westminster.
“It is deeply ironic that Mr Dodds should be concerned about the power Alex Salmond could have in London while ignoring the elephant in the room – the power which his party gifted to self-confessed IRA commander Martin McGuinness when they agreed to partner Republicans in Belfast!
“The very fact that people are discussing the possibility that a coalition may have to be formed after the next election is a telling reminder that people in Northern Ireland simply doesn’t have the same democratic rights which are taken for granted in the rest of the United Kingdom.
“Unlike other nations in the UK, we do not have a coalition of those who can agree to govern together and a vibrant opposition to hold them to account. We don’t offer the electorate a chance to change their government at the next election.
“Rather, we have a government in which all parties are in office as of right for ever regardless of whether they can agree about anything or not!
“If the Stormont system was imposed on the rest of the UK all major parties – including possibly the SNP – would be in government as of right. Such a system would be unworkable and characterised by deadlock.
“Yet it is TUV – and only TUV – which is serious about changing devolution in Northern Ireland so that we have a system which can deliver for all our people and respects basic democratic rights.”