Veteran unionist set to retire

A veteran Ulster unionist member of the Northern Assembly is to retire at the next Stormont election.

John Gorman, aged 79, MLA for North Down, will not seek re-election in polling next May.

Gorman is a war veteran who was decorated for bravery during the Second World War with the Irish Guards, and is the only Catholic MLA on David Trimble’s Ulster Unionist Assembly team.

The former deputy speaker of the Assembly, who was also a speaker of the Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue during the Good Friday Agreement talks, has been a strong supporter of the Agreement and is the third member of that wing of the UUP who will not run.

On Friday, South Antrim MLA Duncan Shipley-Dalton confirmed he would not be seeking his party’s nomination to defend his seat because he could not contest it alongside Agreement sceptic, the local MP David Burnside.

Last night, East Belfast MLA Ian Adamson was deselected by his constituency association.

Stormont Economy Minister Reg Empey, former Belfast Lord Mayor Jim Rodgers and Castlereagh Deputy Mayor Michael Copeland were chosen by the East Belfast constituency association to represent them at the next election.

John Gorman is the second senior figure in the UUP constituency association in North Down to confirm that he will not be running.

North Down MP, Sylvia Hermon did not seek special permission from party officers to contest the election unlike her fellow MPs, David Burnside and Jeffrey Donaldson.

The Ulster Unionists won three seats in North Down at the last Assembly election in 1998.

However one of the party’s MLAs, Peter Weir, defected to the Democratic Unionists after a bitter row with colleagues over power sharing with Sinn Fein and his deselection as a Westminster candidate.

Mr Weir had been selected by the constituency association but the result was declared invalid during his dispute with the party leadership over its policy of power sharing.

Sitting North Down MLA Alan McFarland is expected to seek re-election.