New DUP assembly member denies election seat deal

Peter Martin has been co-opted into the Northern Ireland Assembly after Alex Easton was elected to Westminster

The new Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MLA for North Down Peter Martin has denied doing "any deals" with Alex Easton over the seat.

Mr Easton is now the MP for North Down, having won the Westminster seat from Alliance's Stephen Farry.

In a surprise move, Mr Easton selected Mr Martin to replace him in the assembly.

Alex Easton had quit the DUP in 2021 after claiming the party had no "respect, discipline or decency".

BBC News NI asked Mr Martin if he had done any deals with Alex Easton before the election.

"I hadn't done any deals with him," Mr Martin replied.

"Alex had made clear that he did try to find an independent candidate, he said that today," he added.

"He obviously put me down, I assume yesterday as all this seemed to happen yesterday, for his replacement."

TUV had 'received assurances'

In a statement, the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) party said it had "received assurances" from Alex Easton before the election that he would select an "independent unionist who opposed the sea border" and it was on this basis that TUV had backed his campaign.

The party said there is a "feeling of betrayal among those who showed commitment to Mr Easton only to find that they had been misled".

Ulster Unionist Peer Lord Empey said: “The question now arises, was there a deal between Mr Easton and the DUP all along that in return for DUP staying out of the contest they would get Mr Easton's assembly seat?

“If so, it would be a very shoddy deal indeed."

Mr Martin's selection for the seat was also criticised by the Alliance MLA Andrew Muir.

"If you ever wanted a clear, blatant and unashamed example of vote Easton, get DUP this is it," he posted on social media.

BBC News NI contacted Alex Easton for comment but he did not respond.

Alex Easton (right) topped the poll last week when he was elected as the new MP for North Down replacing Alliance's Stephen Farry (left)

Peter Martin said his co-option to the assembly seat had come as a shock.

"Twenty-four hours ago I was on holiday in Portstewart with my wife and kids and then yesterday morning I ended up getting on a train to come back down to Bangor because all of this started happening," he said.

"All this happened yesterday - at 08:20 I got an email from the chief electoral officer and then Alex was filling in forms from then."

He had, though, canvassed for Alex Easton in the recent Westminster election.

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"My party leader Gavin Robinson said that we were going to endorse Alex so that was the obvious thing to do," he said.

Alex Easton is "an old friend" and it was "the right thing to do", he added.

"Alex has spoken about this today and said that he had given assurances that he was going to try to find an independent candidate.

"He made clear that he couldn't find that independent candidate.

"I'm just honoured to be here and be an MLA for North Down and serve the people."

Mr Martin said that the TUV criticism was "between the TUV and Alex."

"But what I would say is that opening this out a wee bit wider is that unionism did win a seat in North Down," he said.

"Alex is there in Westminster to be an independent unionist, and I'm here to be a unionist working on the ground on the same issues that Alex worked on."

Mr Martin said that he did not expect continuing divisions within unionism over the Windsor Framework and Irish sea border to cause him problems in loyalist areas, given he had spent many years as a local councillor.

"People will understand that I have a track record of working on the things that actually really matter to them and that's what I intend to do from day one, is be working for those people, solving those issues and being a conscientious MLA."

Mr Martin has also spent time as a Special Advisor (SPAD) to the former Education Minister Peter Weir.

He told BBC News NI that educational underachievement and children's mental health were "important issues to me."