Jim Allister

But you get the kind of impression that the UUP and the TV are quite suspicious of the DUP in terms of who will actually benefit from this.

I mean, Jim Allister came out, I think it was last week, in the Great Hall when he was giving his press conference here at Stormont.

And he essentially said he won't be in the business of saving the DEP's skin.

So that just shows you where he stands.

When is it? I remember, well, it's a year and a half away, but that's just around the corner.

And I'd like to get it over with us.

Now, TUV leader Jim Allister, of course, who's firmly in favour of collapsing Stormont.

He's third in terms of popularity and 60%.

You could broadly say it's a Stormont has to work camp and a Stormont needs to be brought down.

Camp Jim Allister represents that Stormont needs to be brought down camp.

John Burrows is representing, I think quite effectively, that Stormont needs to stay up for Northern Ireland to be seen to work camp.

And the DUP find themselves caught between the two stools.

They're neither in the Jim Allister camp, they're neither in the John Burrows camp.

And a fault line in unionism really does run right through the DUP.

What's your read of it, Brendan? There's a lot of interesting stuff within that poll.

And what is that, Jim? What stuff? Well, there's united unionism.

And meanwhile, it's got two quite coherent people up against it.

Jim Allister, who's a sort of old school DUP, anti-agreement unionist, very, very capable.

And then this new John Burroughs, former police officer leading the Austrian party, very inexperienced, lots of flaws in terms of where that might go.

But right now, his key selling point is that he doesn't sound like a politician because he's not a politician.

And we all have differing abilities.

We all have, you know, I'm not legally trained, for instance, like what Gavin is or like what Jim Allister is, but I have an ability to read the room and go out and speak to people and get the views of grassroots.

And I believe that I can really push that movement forward.

Well, in your first week, and I have to say, I'm very worried because it looks like you're about to put me out of business.

bands.

Can we move on just to your two papers and congratulations on getting some work out into the public domain so quickly.

I would have thought on the accountability legislation that Jim Allister is the point man for that because it reminds me of the SPAD bill that Jim Allister very successfully steered through the Assembly to get rid of, as it turned out, one Sinn Féin employee who had a criminal record.

So I would have thought Jim Allister is the guy to take that forward.

Where are we

going now? Where are we going now? Well, within unionism, and obviously this is a big story within unionism, I don't think we're going anywhere significant prior to the Assembly elections, because I think the thing about the elections is the Assembly elections, as Jim Allister was saying this very morning, is a proportional representation system and there'll be a real seeing of where the parties lie.

And the DUP being vulnerable, there's not going to be much willingness in the Ulster Unionist Party or in the TUV to give them a lot of slack until we see and we can never be sure that Sinn Féin will do well and we can never be sure that the UUP and TUV will do well until actually the election happens.

I cite those examples because those are the examples that people predict.

And the other very brief point, I'll just say a few words of this and give over to Alex, but that's striking about this is how few people leave the DUP.

of note.

And if you go back to the extraordinary vault fasts of them going into power with Sinn Féin in 2007, having, you could say, gone against everything you would expect from the DUP, there has been a reluctance to do that over 20, since Jim Allister went in 2007, over the better of basically 20 years.

I've more to say about that if we've time later.

It's not about Johnny Buckley.

It's not about Gavin Robinson, John Burrows or Jim Allister.

It's about the people we represent.

And that is where my focus is today.

But I can't keep harking back to things that I can't change or influence in the past.

My focus is on the future, and I say sincerely to Joan Burrows and the Ulster Unionist Party, I've stepped, I've put out the hand of friendship, I want you to grab it, and let's work together for the sake of the people that we collectively represent.

And what do you say to Jim Allister? My view to Jim Allister is this.

I've seen Jim's statement as well, and I respect some of his sincerely held points.