Sammy Wilson rounds on unionist 'vote-splitters': Election 2024

Sammy Wilson of the DUP rounds on unionist 'vote-splitters': Election 2024

Transcript

00:00Mr. Wilson you've just arrived at the

00:02count centre here in Macrafelt. How are you

00:04feeling tonight about how the DUP in

00:06general is shaping up? Well I think that first

00:09of all everyone who's a candidate

00:11always approaches these things with a

00:13degree of trepidation and nervousness.

00:15Obviously it's been a difficult campaign

00:18to a certain extent because of the fact

00:21that there are a number of seats where

00:23the unionist vote is going to be split and

00:26even though we're the biggest party the

00:28seat could go to a non-unionist and those are the

00:31seats that we'll be examining very very

00:32closely at the early stages of the count

00:35to see how the tallies come out and just

00:38how much damage has been done by those

00:40who seem to put their own selfish

00:43interests first and the interests of the

00:45union second. Overall, let's say the DUP

00:48does lose seats tonight, where does that

00:51leave the party leadership? Well I mean I

00:54think that first of all we all admire the

00:57way Gavin stepped in at a very very difficult time.

01:01It wasn't a position he sought, it was a

01:04position that was thrust upon him and he

01:06took, he's taken on that leadership role

01:09very very seriously. He has dealt with it

01:11very confidently and he will have our

01:14support regardless of the outcome

01:17tonight because we believe that he has

01:20been an anchor at a very difficult time

01:22and you know he can't be blamed for the

01:25kind of misfortunes that the party, he

01:29has inherited the situation, he hasn't

01:32caused the situation.