DUP 2024: We have to get over ourselves as individual parties

News Letter

'We have to get over ourselves as individual parties, it's about the country' - DUP's Jonathan Buckley on future Westminster elections, speaking to David Thompson of the Belfast News Letter at the DUP conference on Saturday September 21 2024

Transcript

00:00So Jonathan in your speech to conference today you said that the party should

00:04analyze the past with complete honesty and that it had fallen short in the past

00:08what were you referring to? Well I think it's important that every political

00:11party be open and honest with the public as to look we're all fallible we all

00:16make mistakes I think it's important for us to acknowledge that with humility and

00:20grace and try to reset the balance and recalibrate towards the future now. For

00:25political parties particularly of a unionist persuasion there's a real

00:28challenge and a drive now to try to bring new people bring younger faces

00:32into the party and that's essentially what I was trying to do in my speech was

00:37to get it across that you know mistakes have been made every political party has

00:42made mistakes but we're getting it right now about putting a firm marker down for

00:47the future this party is back in business and looking forward to future

00:51elections in two and a half years time. People in this room might know what you

00:56mean by the mistakes but but for the public what's the biggest mistake the

01:00party has made what was it was its handling of the protocol deal a mistake?

01:04I think there's been a lot of things David I'm not getting into specifics but

01:08you know whether it was personal a scandal for political members or whether

01:13it was different agreements over a recent time whether it was even our

01:16conduct internally the party has to rebalance and recalibrate I think that

01:20people really appreciate and understand politicians that are human make

01:26mistakes you learn from them you move forward together and that's

01:30essentially what this conference is about it's about us collectively coming

01:33together now to build unionism for the future and have a political party that's

01:37fit for purpose. You highlighted Alex Easton's victory in Westminster during

01:42your speech is that a model that you would support of independent or

01:48non-party aligned candidates? Look I'm about winning seats for unionism more

01:53seats mean more influence in Westminster I think we have to get over

01:58ourselves politically as individual parties it's about the country and you

02:03know Alex Easton's win in Northdown spectacular win it was a win in which

02:07our party were fully behind and supported right from the offset to

02:11ensure that that seat was held by unionism that's what it's about it's

02:15people first and you know I want to see that broader conversation among unionism

02:20I think that people are crying out for real leadership among unionist parties

02:25to yes put aside some of the trivial differences and there is some

02:29differences in policies that yes have stood the test of time but ultimately

02:34it's about unionist seats to ensure that we can reflect this base on everything

02:38that's good about it in the House of Commons and the Northern Ireland

02:40Assembly and our councils and in our communities

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Transcript

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