Alex Easton says he is best unionist candidate to take North Down Westminster seat from Alliance Party's Stephen Farry in general election

Mr Easton released a statement on Tuesday confirming his intention to stand.

He told the News Letter he gathered more votes than any other unionist in North Down in the 2022 Assembly election and was therefore best placed unionist to challenge Alliance MP Stephen Farry. He who took the seat in 2019 after independent unionist MP Lady Sylvia Hermon retired.

Mr Easton resigned the DUP whip in 2021 to continue as an independent MLA.

He will also be running against the UUP candidate Tim Collins.

"If you look at my results in the last assembly election, I got almost 10,000 - that was the closest unionists to the Alliance," he said.

The two Alliance candidates combined secured about 11,500 votes by comparison, he notes.

The UUP secured 3,800 votes and DUP 6,200 by comparison, so he believes he is the best qualified candidate to return the seat to unionist hands.

Asked how he thinks UUP candidate Tim Collins will fare, he replies: "I have no interest in Tim Collins. I do wish him all the very best in whatever he does in life. He's free to do whatever he wants. That's democracy."

The feedback since he went independent has been very good, he says.

"You know, lots of people keep coming to me for issues to get resolved. If anything it's probably increased since I went independent. I think everybody knows I've worked extremely hard on the ground on all the small issues as well as the big ones."

Asked if he has suggested other unionist parties stand aside to give him a better run at Mr Farry, he replies: "I try to keep a good relationship with all the other unionist parties. I don't know what other parties are planning to do in North down. If they want to see a pro-union candidate elected well, they know what to do."

Certainly nobody has asked him to step aside, he says.

"There were talks between different unionist parties before Tim Collins declared his intention to stand. And those talks fell apart because the UUP declared, so I don't know where everybody else lies at the moment."