Conservatives in Northern Ireland overruled over ex-chair's return

Businessman Alan Dunlop was chair of the party for five years but quit last October

Northern Ireland Conservatives who snubbed their former chairman's bid to rejoin after he quit over Boris Johnson have been overruled by party headquarters.

Alan Dunlop claimed he had been the victim of a "kangaroo court" when he was rejected in August.

At the time, he told BBC News NI he felt "totally let down".

But now the decision has been overturned by the party's national membership committee.

Mr Dunlop, a successful businessman who said he had given the party thousands of pounds over the years, said he was "delighted".

"I'm not going to pore over the reasons why my application was so strenuously spurned at regional level. There's no point in raking over the past," he said.

"Instead my focus is on the road ahead and how I can help restore the Conservative brand, build a party structure and, yes, move to a position where we can win seats in councils and in Stormont."

He said the party in Northern Ireland was at "a low, low point", adding "it can't get much worse".

The current chairman of the Northern Ireland Conservatives, Matthew Robinson, said the party was "always enthusiastic to welcome new members".

"It is our intention to offer the people of Northern Ireland a truly credible alternative with a team of candidates who will endeavour to speak for the silent majority of the electorate tired of the stale Stormont politics of the past," he added.