UUP's Diana Armstrong on why voters in Fermanagh and South Tyrone should back her on July 4

In an interview with the News Letter the Westminster hopeful has set out her priorities on health, Stormont’s ability to cut its cloth, the Irish Sea border and why disillusioned unionists should come out and vote for her on July 4.

Diana’s late father retired from politics after losing the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election to the IRA man Bobby Sands in 1981.

Over 40 years later, Diana is fighting the same seat against a new generation of republicans who have long since abandoned the gun – but still struggle to condemn atrocities carried out in the area by the IRA of the former hunger striker MP.

The unionist candidate challenged Sinn Fein’s Pat Cullen in a BBC Radio Ulster election debate to condemn the IRA’s Enniskillen Poppy Day massacre – which killed 12 people in the county town – as well as the dissident republican murder of 29 people and two unborn children in Omagh, the single greatest loss of life during the Troubles.

Ms Cullen declined to do so saying they were “were very dark days” and “let's move forward and bring prosperity and hope”.

Over 40 years after her father lost the the seat, it is still on a knife-edge. Sinn Fein’s Michelle Gildernew took it by just 57 votes over the UUP’s Tom Elliott at the last election. In 2010, the winning margin for Sinn Fein was just four votes.

Boundary changes this time will favour republicans. There is also a concern among some about how engaged the other unionist parties are in campaigning for Mrs Armstrong, stemming from a dispute over who would run. The DUP and TUV favoured an agreed non-party unionist candidate.

But she believes that her message of ensuring representation in parliament over an abstentionist MP could sway some middle ground voters towards the UUP.

“I am a strong unionist, I do see a positive confident future for unionism as part of the United Kingdom. And I want others to join me in that as a method of improving our standards of living and sustaining growth in Northern Ireland,” she said, speaking to the News Letter in the party’s office in Dungannon.

The Erne councillor pointed out that the constituency has not been represented at Westminster for 21 out of the last 23 years. “I think that is so vitally important that we have someone there with a strong voice, able to lobby. And we have been totally bereft of that voice at Westminster.”

She said that on the doorsteps, the number one concern for voters is health.

“Healthcare is the one issue that really affects everyone from the cradle to the grave. That is something that we can all relate to.”

A big issue in the constituency, she said, is the need for emergency surgery at the South West Acute Hospital and the extra travel that people have to undertake to Altnagelvin or Craigavon – as well as the inability of people to access GPs.

She said healthcare in Northern Ireland has really suffered because of the collapses of the assembly – and underfunding.

Fellow UUP candidate Tim Collins recently said that one of the biggest threats to the Union is Northern Ireland being seen as a burden on the rest of the United Kingdom.

Asked if there is a tension between that and Mrs Armstrong’s view that Northern Ireland is underfunded, she said tough decisions by the executive on its budget can demonstrate to London that they are capable of making tough decisions.

“I think it’s accepted that with the fiscal floor that we are underfunded and I think that has to be addressed. I think that is something that’s being done at the moment, and I think that will further alleviate the pressures.

“But fundamentally, further down the line, we also need to demonstrate that we have the capacity to deliver budgets on time, on target, within the Northern Ireland Executive.”

The Irish Sea border has been an issue central to unionist politics in recent elections, and none more so than Thursday’s poll. So how does unionism respond to the challenge of a partitioning trade border within the UK?

Mrs Armstrong said the UUP have always opposed the NI Protocol and remain opposed to it.

“My own personal feeling is that there should not be a border in the Irish Sea at all.

“There should be no differentiation in that context between Northern Ireland and the rest of United Kingdom. What we need to do now is look at building better relationships, better understanding to remove what are very very obvious barriers. And very very obvious inconveniences to business and the transit of goods.

“What we need now is a better understanding between our trading partners in Europe and in particular Ireland, where we can build on goodwill, have mutual enforcement, and in that way that is where we will get the benefit for Northern Ireland of access to both markets – GB and EU.”

The unionist candidate wants better transport infrastructure to connect the region into the rest of Northern Ireland.

Why should unionist voters – who may be disillusioned or feeling that their political leaders haven’t always delivered or been truthful with them – make the effort to come out and vote for Diana Armstrong on July 4?

She says the constituency has often created tight elections. “Republicans have used the mantra in the past of ‘greening of the West’.

“Unionism often feels that it’s on the back foot, they need a win. What a watershed moment it would be if unionism could win the most westerly constituency in the United Kingdom.

“Let us give unionism that boost.”

The candidates running in the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency are: Diana Armstrong (UUP), Paul Blake (SDLP), Gerry Cullen (Cross-Community Labour Alternative), Pat Cullen (SInn Fein), Carl Duffy (Aontú), Eddie Roofe (Alliance).

2019 result

Michelle Gildernew (Sinn Fein) 43.3% of vote; Tom Elliott (UUP) 43.2%; Adam Gannon (SDLP) 6.8%; Matthew Beaumont (Alliance) 5.2%; Caroline Wheeler (Independent) 1.5%.