By John Coulter
Copyright newsletter
Given the political trauma which has infected Keir Starmer’s Labour administration in recent months, especially in the thorny immigration issue, the UK could expect a snap Westminster General Election at any time. The foundations of such a UK Coalition of the Right already exist in the House of Commons with several Right-wing parties represented on the green benches – Tory MPs who would have supported the eurosceptic European Research Group (ERG), Reform UK under Nigel Farage, Gavin Robinson’s DUP, along with the TUV’s Jim Allister in North Antrim, the UUP’s Robin Swann in South Antrim, and North Down’s Independent Unionist Alex Easton. Virtually every shade of pro-Union thinking has a representative in the Commons, but the big hurdle to overcome in creating such a UK Coalition of the Right is the key question – who would be the leader or joint leaders of such an amalgamation? Political egos will have to be managed, massaged, placated or put on hold. All these political parties have the ability to agree on a single principle – the defence of the United Kingdom. Put bluntly, could former Tory PM Boris Johnson, who delivered a Maggie Thatcher-style Tory majority before he was ousted, work hand in glove with Farage, whom many opinion polls suggest will be the next British PM in a Reform UK-led Government? Perhaps the Tory Right and Reform UK could take a leaf out of the strategy book of Northern Ireland Unionism when in 1974, the then United Ulster Unionist Council, or Unionist Coalition – affectionately known as the Treble UC – captured 11 of the 12 Commons seats up for grabs in that year’s February General Election. At one time, the UUUC even represented four pro-Union parties – DUP, UUP, Vanguard Unionist Party, and the smaller United Ulster Unionist Party created by Ernie Baird. The power of the Unionist Coalition was that political egos were set aside – albeit temporarily – and Unionism selected the best party to win a Commons seat. Hence, in February 1974, Rev Ian Paisley of the DUP held North Antrim; Jim Molyneaux of the UUP clinched South Antrim, and Vanguard Unionist boss Bill Craig took East Belfast. Indeed, such was the political cohesion in the UUUC, three Westminster seats prior to February which were not held by the UUUC were captured – the Rev Robert Bradford of Vanguard took South Belfast from the sitting liberal Unionist MP R J Pounder; Harry West of the UUP toppled Unity MP F J McManus in Fermanagh-South Tyrone, and John Dunlop, also of Vanguard, clinched Mid-Ulster from Independent Socialist MP Mrs Bernadette McAliskey. Only the SDLP’s Gerry Fitt held his West Belfast bolthole, but was just over 2,000 votes ahead of the DUP’s John McQuade. The one pitfall which the current Right-wing in mainland Britain has got to avoid is ‘Lagan Valley Syndrome’. In the 2024 General Election, the historically safe pro-Union Westminster seat of Lagan Valley – held by Unionism since its creation in 1983 – fell to the pan nationalist front, namely Alliance, because of a three-way split in the pro-Union vote between DUP, UUP and TUV. An agreed Coalition of the Right candidate in the next Westminster showdown will most likely ensure that Lagan Valley returns to the Unionist fold. Given the DUP’s wafer-thin majority in East Londonderry, an agreed Coalition of the Right candidate will be required to stop the seat – which, like Lagan Valley, has always been Unionist since its creation in 1983 – from falling into the hands of the Provisional IRA’s political apologists, Sinn Fein. Put bluntly, Right-wing Tories – especially those with ERG sympathies – will need to ensure they do not go head to head in numerous constituencies with equally Right-wing Reform UK candidates, thereby splitting the Right-wing vote, and allowing the seat to fall to Labour, Lib Dems, or the Greens. Just as the flags issue became a cause for concern among loyalists in Northern Ireland, the immigration question is creating a similar flag protest across mainland Britain. With the small boat crisis costing British taxpayers millions of pounds each year, the Coalition of the Right’s main platform on immigration will be the deportation of illegal migrants arriving daily across the English Channel. The Coalition of the Right needs to expand defence spending and use the Royal Navy to create an ‘iron sea wall’ across the channel so that it is physically impossible for the small boats to penetrate the blockade. The small boat armada currently invading UK waters will have no other option, but to turn back. This will obviously require a lot more Royal Navy ships, which must also be built in the UK thereby creating jobs in the ship-building industry, its supportive trades, and especially posts on those Royal Navy vessels. Likewise, the Coalition of the Right must radically slash overseas aid and plough that cash into the health service, the police forces, and the British Army. To make our streets safer, National Service must be reintroduced with every able-bodied and where possible, disabled person of any age required to complete two years’ service in the security or emergency services. Ironically, to make such an agenda for the Coalition of the Right become a political reality, it may require the intervention of US President Donald Trump if UK egos become a stumbling block. The bottom line is, a UK Coalition of the Right would make a terrific memorial to the legacy of murdered campaigner Charlie Kirk. Dr John Coulter has been a journalist since 1978.
