Statement by TUV party chairman and East Londonderry candidate Jordan Armstrong:
“McDonald’s appeal to Unionists for partnership at an event to celebrate and glorify the blood soaked record of violent Republicanism which was birthed in Easter 1916 and then and in the generations which followed showed no regard for democracy or the ballot box is laughable.
“There is no genuine offer of partnership in a speech which also glorifies Bobby Sands, a man sent to prison for fire bombing a Protestant owned furniture store.
“Having cited a terrorist like Sands and the lionised the seven men who signed the Easter Proclamation, a document which was without democratic basis and which claimed its justification for taking up arms as the “dead generations” rather than anyone then living, McDonald has the gall to lecture Unionists that they must accept a Sinn Fein First Minister should Republicans emerge as the largest party after the Assembly election.
“McDonald is clearly concerned that Unionists are alive to a key point which TUV have been highlighting during this election – there cannot be a Sinn Fein First Minister unless they find a stooge Unionist to serve as deputy. TUV is crystal clear that we will refuse to nominate a deputy if in that position after the election. This speech, glorifying as it does the bloody history of violent Republicanism, is a stark reminder of why TUV is right to adopt that position. Where to the DUP and UUP stand? The public deserve to know.”