Robinson's conqueror hails 'vote for hope over fear'

A vote for hope over fear was how the woman who toppled Democratic Unionist leader Peter Robinson in East Belfast described her triumph.

Flame-haired Naomi Long, 38, won her cross-community Alliance Party its first Westminster seat in 40 years of campaigning and said the public was no longer afraid to give her party its endorsement.

Democratic Unionist leader Mr Robinson will now be pondering his next move after more than 30 years in office. He lost out after a year marred by questions about Westminster expenses and the controversy surrounding his wife Iris, who conducted an affair with a teenage lover.

However, for former civil engineer and avid churchgoer Mrs Long her victory was one for the future.

“People were determined to send a message, the message for once was a positive one, voting for what you hoped for, not against what you fear,” she said.

The last time the Alliance Party came close to winning a seat in East Belfast came in 1979 when its first leader Oliver Napier ran a fresh-faced Mr Robinson close. Mrs Long burst into tears today as Mr Napier hailed her victory.

A keen fencer at her Bloomfield Collegiate School, the deputy Alliance Party leader has enjoyed a dizzying rise to prominence.

Colleagues recalled how even 12 years ago as a relative unknown at Alliance Party Council meetings Mrs Long could captivate the audience with her energy and determination. She said her triumph had little to do with gender – Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew is another female candidate to triumph – and more to do with her policies.

She added her victory sent out a message that a shared future could succeed across the North.

“This election was entered as a tribal contest but I said it was up to the people,” she said.

“They wanted to talk about cuts and public services. People were raising policy issues.”

She said key issues to be addressed at Westminster included pensions as well as what the North's budget was going to be. Her party has campaigned to cut the cost of duplicating services like schools in the North because Catholics and Protestants have been educated separately.

Jim Hendron worked closely with her on the campaign trail and was one of those involved in establishing the Alliance Party.

“She is a highly intelligent young lady. She was a very determined girl and when she focused on something she went for it 100% and that is the characteristic that I and indeed my colleagues in the Alliance Party have noticed from the beginning,” he said.

“She came to our notice at party council meetings 10 to 12 years ago. The fact that she was an excellent speaker who fiercely spoke her mind marked her out as a young woman who was really going to go places not only in the party but in politics generally.

“I have seen her build on each election, her workrate is phenomenal. I am not at all surprised. From the day that I first heard her speak at Alliance Party Council meetings I knew she was going to be a very valuable asset to this party.”

He said her husband Michael, a dentist and fellow Alliance councillor, was her rock.

“She has great determination and courage. She is inspired with a willingness to help, she believes in the ideals of the Alliance Party, cross-community and trying to get the community to work together. She is an incredibly hard worker, helping people with their constituency problems,” he added.

Currently the Lord Mayor of Belfast, she helped to host thousands of sportsmen and visitors at the Tall Ships festival last summer and presided over the reopening of the imposing baroque City Hall.

Politics leaves her little time for hobbies but she had been a keen choir singer and is a committed member of her church, Bloomfield Presbyterian, where she is a girl guide leader.

Minister Frank Sellar has known her for three years. He said she was authentic, personable, hard-working and real and would be warmly congratulated at the church regardless of political view.

“She would have a committed Christian faith which means a lot to her and she is not afraid to speak about it but she does not use it as a way of attacking people, rather as a way of living out the values that she believes are important for a healthy society,” he said.

“Those are the importance of people, care for people who need her, a voice working alongside people where they are to help them to go where they need to go, basic issues of humanity.”