Traditional Unionist Voice have announced that Samuel Morrison will be their candidate in Lagan Valley at the general election.
Samuel lives in Dromore with his wife, Esther, and infant daughter, Grace. He has worked for Jim Allister since completing his Masters at Queen’s in 2007 and is TUV Press Officer. He is experienced in political and constituency issues and writes a weekly blog for the Belfast Telegraph.
Locally he organised the successful campaign to put the brakes on the Maze shrine, helping to collect thousands of signatures across Lagan Valley in opposition to it.
Commenting Samuel said:
“I am delighted to be selected by TUV in Lagan Valley to contest the Westminster election.
“The vote obtained by TUV last year – where Jim Allister came within a few thousand votes of taking a European seat – demonstrated that our message is resonating with people across Northern Ireland.
“Our achievements at Stormont – Ann’s Law which ensured that convicted terrorists can no longer hold positions as Special Advisers, pensions justice for RUC widows, our exposure of government waste and squander and more recently Jim’s work on the DSD committee which has helped expose the DUP’s shameful treatment of one of their own councillors in Lisburn, Jenny Palmer – shows that TUV is a party which is about delivering for the people of Northern Ireland.
“I want to bring that same level of dedication and hard work to Westminster.
“From talking to people locally I know there is still a lot of dissatisfaction with the old parties. Lagan Valley Hospital is being run down and the centre of Lisburn has been left in a dreadful state for months which has had a most negative impact on local business. The outgoing MP spent much of the last Parliament trying to persuade us that an IRA shrine at the Maze was nothing to worry about and only changed his tune because of sheer weight of Unionist opposition. Just this week the publication of the Northern Ireland Select Committee’s report into the On the Runs scandal reminded us of the profoundly immoral basis of Northern Ireland’s political system and the broken promises of Peter Robinson – who pledged to resign as co-First Minister unless the letters were called in and the names and alleged crimes of recipients published.
“And it was only due to the digging of Jim Allister that it was exposed this week that Gerry Kelly received a Royal Pardon for the Old Bailey bombing – something which wasn’t exposed by the Parliamentary inquiry into the issues of OTR letters and pardons to terrorists.
“Stormont seems to permanently teeter on the brink on the brink of collapse. At Christmas it was claimed that the Stormont House Agreement was the solution to all of Northern Ireland’s problems. Now it lies in tatters because Sinn Fein pulled the plug. It’s time we had a system which genuinely works and can deliver for the people of Northern Ireland. TUV is the only party which is committed to bringing the real change Northern Ireland so badly needs.
“I want to give a voice to those Unionists who believe that enough is enough. The Union Flag has been torn down from the prime civic building in our capital city. Orangemen are denied the freedom to parade which has resulted in the farce of the “graduated response” – a response so gradual that people have forgotten about it. A Christian bakery persecuted by the tax payer funded Equality Commission – a body which receives tax payer’s money via Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness.
“All this and more has led to Unionist discontent with the establishment.
“With the UUP indistinguishable from the DUP only Traditional Unionist Voice is offering the people of Lagan Valley a real alternative to the failed politics of the past.”
Commenting on Samuel’s selection TUV leader Jim Allister said:
“Thousands of people in Lagan Valley kindly voted for me in the European election last year. I am now asking them to translate that into a vote on 7th May for Samuel Morrison and thereby strengthen my hand even further.
“I am pleased to recommend Samuel to the electorate of Lagan Valley. He is a talented young man who with enthusiasm and vigour necessary to give people the representation they need in Parliament.”