DUP to run in South Belfast despite voting pact call

The DUP leader Ian Paisley has said there will be a candidate from his party in the South Belfast constituency in the British general election, when the sitting UUP MP Martin Smyth resigns.

The UUP, which is expected to put up the pro-Agreement Michael McGimpsey as its candidate, had asked for a vote pact in the area to prevent Sinn Féin gaining the seat, but Mr Paisley said that could be ignored.

“It is the principles of the election that are important, not the personalities, and if the principle is that a person goes down the road that Mr McGimpsey has in foreswearing traditional Unionism, then the people are demanding that the Democratic Unionist candidate runs in the neighbourhood,” he said.