Traditional Unionist Voice leader calls for voluntary NI coalition

The Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister has told his annual party conference he wants voluntary coalition in the North and to "be the trailblazers for democratising Stormont".

Mr Allister, a fierce opponent of the Sinn Féin and DUP power-sharing arrangements in Northern Ireland, has his eye firmly on increasing support for the TUV ahead of next year’s elections.

Mr Allister is the TUV’s sole MLA and the party has 11 councillors across the North.

He told about 200 delegates gathered at the Hilton Hotel in Templepatrick that the TUV was the only authentic opposition at Stormont.

The animated politician chose Johnny Cash's recording of I Won't Back Down to reflect his mood and said the TUV had stood its ground in comparison to "the slipping and slithering of rollover unionism that renewed vows with the IRA".

He was deeply critical of his unionist rivals throughout.

On the outgoing DUP leader and First Minister Peter Robinson, Mr Allister claimed his legacy was Sinn Féin in government and he described the recent Fresh Start deal brokered to save government in the North from collapsing as “a trade-off of climbdowns”.

“Of course it is not a fresh start, it’s the same old same old, given a few new garbs to wrap itself in,” he said. “That’s all it is, and it too will unravel.”

The TUV leader, who is a QC and a former DUP MEP, is in favour of the United Kingdom leaving Europe.

He claimed a Brexit would be liberation “from the chains of the EU” and called for a removal of the “shackles of mandatory coalition” at Stormont as he believed the route to workable devolution was a voluntary coalition.

Co Antrim-born British Labour Party MP Kate Hoey spoke to delegates on the case for leaving the EU.

She described as “a dreadful slur on the people of Northern Ireland” the recent suggestion by Taoiseach Enda Kenny that the UK’s departure from Europe could have an impact on the peace process.

Henry Reilly, who was recently expelled from Ukip, was announced as a TUV candidate for South Down.