Diana Armstrong insists she has ‘political credentials’ for deputy leadership

Diana Armstrong has insisted she has the “political credentials” to become deputy leader of the UUP, despite not being elected to Stormont.

The former Fermanagh and Omagh councillor was pressed on whether she and her running mate Jon Burrows, who is vying to become party leader of the Ulster Unionists, were credible candidates to take the two senior positions, given they were both co-opted into their Stormont seats and not elected.

Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA Ms Armstrong, who is the daughter of the late former party leader Harry West, lost out to Sinn Fein in the vote to become MP for the constituency in the last Westminster election.

Later in 2024, she was co-opted as an MLA, replacing party colleague Tom Elliott at Stormont after he was made a peer.

Answering questions from reporters in Parliament Buildings on Thursday, Ms Armstrong said: “I can prove my political credentials, having recently secured over 20,000 votes in the last Westminster election.

“I stood and served as a councillor and chair and vice-chair of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council for almost nine years, topping the polls.

“I can deliver that to the people on the ground that I serve in County Fermanagh and in this constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone, and so I don’t have a problem with that (with the fact her and Mr Burrows were co-opted MLAs).

“I think my track record is clear, and I am there to serve people.

“I will serve. And what I want to see is everyone in Northern Ireland, no matter what their background, that they should thrive under this reinvigorated leadership that will bring prosperity, that seeks to scrutinise, that seeks to challenge, that seeks to call out where we’re seeing inefficiencies, that seeks to bring the focus back to how can we make Northern Ireland better.”

Ms Armstrong declined to be drawn on whether she had rebuffed a request from current deputy leader Robbie Butler to be his running mate before opting to back Mr Burrows.

“I think the conversations between the three of us should remain private,” she said.

“We have agreed that to preserve the integrity of the process.

“Robbie is a very valued and trusted colleague who’s displayed a lot of support to me in my time here, so no, I wouldn’t be commenting on that.”

Ms Armstrong said Mr Burrows could help grow the UUP.

“In John, I’m seeing an energy and a vigour that we rarely see in Ulster Unionist Party,” she said.

“What I’m seeing is a desire for growth. Foundations have been laid over the last number of years by my colleagues in the Ulster Unionist Party. Under the leadership of Mike Nesbitt, the party has been taken forward, it is in a stable position.

“Right now what we’re experiencing is, beyond anything else, an excitement in the party, that there is a focus, a drive, an energy to take the Ulster Unionist Party and its values forward.”