Speech by Tom Elliott MLA at the official launch of his campaign to win Fermanagh and South Tyrone

(The Valley Hotel, Fivemiletown Tuesday 7th April 2015)

I’m running not only as a candidate for all unionists in the constituency, but as a candidate for all voters who believe they deserve the same rights as those across Northern Ireland and Great Britain - representation.

I’ve already had people at the doors, who traditionally would not identify as being unionist, pledging their support because they recognise the importance of having their voices heard at Westminster.

A voice for Fermanagh and South Tyrone has been missing in the House of Commons over the last 14 years. Locally we have had no say on how much taxes people and businesses should have to pay, on important moments in our recent history such as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and importantly, on how the UK Government could balance getting the nations finances in order with continuing to protect public services.

Northern Ireland continues to remain heavily dependent on support from the UK Government and whilst Sinn Fein engage in their usual crocodile cries of fury – how many times has our local MP actually gone into the Chamber of the House of Commons to get a better deal for us? Never.

In fact she has even had the barefacedness to implement major cuts in spending when she was a Minister at Stormont, whilst at the same time saying she was opposed to cuts. Even now her Sinn Fein colleagues in the Northern Ireland Executive continue to implement them whether it’s in our schools, our sports clubs or services for rural communities and farmers.

Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.   

So Fermanagh and South Tyrone has not only been getting a poor deal over the last 14 years, it has been getting a rotten one.

Michelle Gildernew doesn’t seem to care however. She’s more interested in telling people this seat belongs to her and Bobby Sands. I actually don’t think this seat belongs to anybody, but the voters, so the suggestion just demonstrates the contempt that Sinn Fein has got for local voters. And it was the contempt for the unionist community in particular that was exposed last year in foul mouthed tirades by both Michelle Gildernew and Gerry Adams.

We have an opportunity now in 30 days to send a clear message. A message that shows that local people are sick of being neglected at Westminster. That they’re sick of being taken for granted and that they’re sick of being treated as mere political pawns by Sinn Fein.

But I fully accept it will be a challenge. We tried 5 years ago and unfortunately we lost by the tightest of margins – only 1 vote. I’m sure we all know people who didn’t vote but who could have. 

It could be as equally tight this time around – but we will have to try harder than ever. Every vote will count but the response we are getting on the doors is that there is a groundswell of support and anticipation for us to do it.

During this campaign I am going the extra mile and I am receiving messages of support from people right across the community – from some who I have helped in the past and from others who I am sure I may well need to help in the future.

But we should take nothing for granted. Sinn Fein are a militaristic machine – they will bring in volunteers and staff by the busload, they will use their multi-million party finances and they will try every old trick in the book to try to make sure they don’t lose what they consider to be their seat.

They might have the money and the paid staff, but we have the better arguments on our side.

I am running not only because I think we can do better but because I genuinely believe Fermanagh and South Tyrone deserves better than what it has got.

Why is it that as the UK economy is now really starting to shift into gear, we being left behind? Or why are local people paid far less than even the Northern Ireland average?

This constituency should have an MP who is prepared to work night and day – here and in London – to promote it.

I have the proven experience – through my years on Fermanagh District Council and 12 years in the Assembly – of delivering a first-rate local service. 

I already know many of the MPs across the Parties and I will work with future UK Governments to put Fermanagh and South Tyrone’s voice back onto the table and keep it there.

I have been asked a number of times on the doorsteps about who I would support in the event of a hung Parliament. And that is a very important point because, as we are drawing closer to polling day, the likelihood of neither the Labour Party nor the Conservatives wining enough seats to form a majority is growing.

Ulster Unionist MPs would have a very important role to play in such an event. But instead of coming up with a pre-election shopping list of wishes – as Mike Nesbitt has said, we will do what is best for Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. We will not forget or neglect our obligation to the Union we must remember that the biggest threat to the United Kingdom is not Gerry Adams trying to make himself sound relevant by regularly calling for a border poll here – but instead those within the Scottish National Party.

So whilst we will have to see how the next Government pans out, I have already decided on what a number of my top priorities if elected would be.

They include:

Getting a better deal for the constituency in public spending. That includes in our local health service and schools. Pressures are clearly building at the South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen – with some of the worst ever waiting times published last month – and in even the limited services at South Tyrone Hospital could be under threat. At Parliament I would also raise at the highest levels Sinn Fein’s mismanagement of our education system. We have been promised so much and yet had virtually nothing delivered in return except for political dogma and flawed ideology. Sinn Fein may think it’s playing a clever game by closing schools such as Lisnaskea High School, but it is not going unnoticed by the local community.

Another key priority at Westminster for me would be to support local businesses by making it easier for them to carry their day to day operations without being burdened by a snowball of unnecessary regulation or taxation. We have an entrepreneurial spirit that is the envy of almost anywhere else across the UK, yet at present we aren’t doing enough to harness it. If elected I would seek to place reform to EU regulations that disproportionately impact small and medium sized businesses at the core of future negotiations in regards to our relationship with the European Union.

A further absolute key priority for me is to push the very highest of the UK government and legal systems to ensure that the disgusting on-the-run letters currently in circulation have no legal affect and that those terrorists are brought before the courts.

Other pledges also include my total support for our farmers and agri-food industry, working with public bodies to ensure that they give greater numbers of our young people opportunities through formal apprenticeships and revised planning system that takes a much more sensible approach to decisions.

There is so much that our Constituency deserves to have said, but which is currently going unspoken.

And yet, even though she doesn’t take her seat and she doesn’t give local people a voice – Michelle Gildernew and Sinn Fein have still been doing well for themselves.

So well in fact the figures published that last year show that Sinn Fein’s five MPs still managed to claim £586,000 between them – £126,000 by Michelle Gildernew alone. Over 15 years she has claimed well over a million pounds in expenses yet never cast a vote in the House of Commons. I suppose their own name is ‘ourselves alone’, and it certainly the case that they’re putting their own interests ahead of the voters.

And before Sinn Fein try to argue that every penny of every claim was spent to the benefit of local people – I would remind them that the Party spent over half a million pounds of taxpayers money renting three London properties from the same family at rates far above the market norm.

On the 7th of May we have an opportunity to send a voice to Westminster. I am asking you to let me be that voice. A voice not only for all unionists but for everyone. The days of trying to claim ownership of seats should be over.

But we are in for a hell of a fight – quite possibly the toughest fight this Association has faced in a generation. Every single last vote will count. But if we work together and we all are prepared to put the time and effort in over the next 30 days I am sure we will once again see the most westerly constituency in the UK given back its voice.

It’s one day, we have one chance, let’s make it work.