Hermon victory eases pain for Ulster Unionists
Sylvia Hermon tonight gave a massive boost to Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble by pulling off a remarkable victory against sitting MP Bob McCartney.
In a straight contest against the anti-Agreement UKUP leader Bob McCartney, Hermon romped home by more than 7,000 votes to become the first female Northern Ireland MP since Bernadette Devlin.
Dressed in a striking royal blue suit, Hermon was greeted with thunderous cheers as she promised to fight for the Good Friday Agreement and the people of North Down.
‘‘It’s a very clear message - look at the majority it’s a resounding victory in North Down. People had a very clear choice between the anti-Agreement candidate and myself,’’ she said.
A dejected Mr McCartney who saw his 1,449 majority crumble to dust launched an attack on the Alliance Party for pulling out of the contest and pulling in behind the UUP.
Mr McCartney, who was met by loud jeers, said the Alliance Party would face political extinction.
‘‘The electorate of North Down, many of whom will have time to reflect that their jubilation at this result will be nothing compared to the jubilation of Sinn Fein/IRA and their murderous counterparts in the loyalist paramilitaries, who of course support the UUP,’’ he said.
There was speculation that the turnout would be at referendum levels of around 70% but in the end it was 59.13% compared to 57.9% in the last election.
It was the end of an era for the leading barrister who took the seat in 1995 in a by-election after the death of popular Unionist Party leader Jim Kilfedder.
The turning point of the campaign took place last month when Alliance candidate Stephen Farry pulled out of the battle, urging his supporters to vote for the pro-Agreement Hermon.
Her majority will be some comfort to David Trimble who has been fighting hard to beat off the challenge of anti-Agreement unionists led by the Democratic Unionist Party.
At the start of the day Mr McCartney’s camp had been ‘‘quietly confident’’ of victory but that soon evaporated when the ballot boxes were opened around lunchtime.
A glum aide of the UK Unionist leader admitted that the fight was effectively over before the count even began.
Number crunchers were immediately predicting a win for Hermon as the ballot boxes revealed she was leading the sitting MP by two to one in some areas.
Earlier, Ulster Unionist nerves were jangling when it was revealed that the turnout was around 60%, 10 points lower than they had hoped.
A higher turnout would have meant that the usual stay away voters who had voted yes in the 1998 referendum had turned out to support the Ulster Unionist cause.
Bob McCartney had been in his usual imperious mood when he arrived at Ards Leisure Centre for the count.
The UK Unionist leader had expected a very good result if the response of people coming out of the polling station was to be believed.
In a sharp aside aimed at his opponents, he added:
‘‘After all I’m taking on the unbelievable and the unelectable.’’
By the end of the day it was apparent that the voters of North Down had decided otherwise.
