'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
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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