DUP: We must fight for Euro cash

Northern Ireland faces considerable challenges in the years ahead from European Union enlargement, the Democratic Unionist’s new European Parliament candidate claimed today.

Barrister Jim Allister said after he was chosen as his party’s candidate for June European Parliament election that the next generation of MEPs in the North faced a hard fight to secure vital funds from Brussels.

Mr Allister was commenting after the party’s 90-member executive chose him over three Stormont Assembly members – party chairman Maurice Morrow, former Mid-Ulster and South Antrim MP the Rev William McRae, and Newry and Armagh MLA Paul Berry.

His victory marked a remarkable comeback in the DUP – the party which he retired from in 1987 when he was prevented from contesting an Ulster Unionist seat in East Antrim in the General Election because of a pact between the two parties.

Mr Allister said: “I am obviously delighted to be chosen as the DUP candidate.

“I am very honoured to be selected as the candidate for Europe for the main unionist party in Northern Ireland. I am delighted to fill the seat, which Dr Paisley held for so long and so well.

“I have a responsibility to deliver as he delivered.”

Mr Allister succeeds DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley as the party’s European Parliament candidate following his decision last month to step down from the Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg.

Mr Paisley has topped every single poll since the first European Parliament election in 1979.

The North sends three MEPs to the European Parliament every five years under the proportional representation system.

Mr Allister said the enlargement of the European Union was going to “throw up tremendous challenges for Northern Ireland”.

“The days of easy grants are over. Impoverished states are joining European Union and less money is going to go to more prosperous parts such as Northern Ireland,” he said.

“In fact the UK will be expected to contribute more to the European Union which means less money in our pockets.

“So the job will be harder but I believe that with my experience and commitment we can succeed.”

Mr Allister, 50, is a former personal assistant to Mr Paisley in the European Parliament.

He was a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly between 1982 and 1986 under the Enlish conservative government ruling devolution plan for Northern Ireland.

In the 1983 Westminster election he missed out on the East Antrim seat by just 367 votes, which was won by Ulster Unionist Roy Beggs.

Mr Allister told PA news he had to think “long and hard” about his return to politics when the prospect of running for the European Parliament presented itself.

“It was not my initial intention to re-enter the political arena at this stage,” he confessed.

“However I was consulted by various friends in law and in politics who said the European seat was a particular opportunity to make a contribution at a local level.”

The DUP candidate said it was frustrating that there was no devolved Assembly in operation in Northern Ireland as he launched his bid for a European seat.

“Obviously it is my ambition that I can sit down as a DUP MEP with a DUP First Minister and plot out how I can then serve the Government of my region in Europe.”