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    Opponents prosper with divided unionism, says DUP leader

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    By Brendan Hughes

    Copyright bbc

    Opponents prosper with divided unionism, says DUP leader

    By Gareth Gordon, BBC News NI political correspondent

    What Reform UK is to Labour and the Conservatives, the TUV is to the DUP – though on a smaller scale.

    Simplistic view? Maybe, but it’s been that way since its former MEP Jim Allister quit the party 18 years ago to form one of his own – and he hasn’t gone away, you know.

    Evidence for this is Allister unseating Ian Paisley in the last Westminster election.

    The case against is the fact that the TUV – partly because voters appear to find it transfer averse in PR elections – has never won more than one assembly seat.

    Step forward the recent poll by LucidTalk which had the DUP down to 17% and the TUV snapping at its heels in third place on 13%, ahead of Alliance, the SDLP and the Ulster Unionists.

    At least two of those other parties don’t have any need to fear losing votes to the TUV. The DUP does, whether that fear is justified or not.

    And exaggerated claims to have got rid of the Irish Sea border still work against the DUP and work for the TUV.

    There’s been a recent and noticeable increase in attacks on Sinn Féin since assembly members returned after the summer break.

    Expect more of that at this weekend’s DUP conference.

    Already the Alliance leader Naomi Long has claimed the DUP’s assembly election campaign for 2027 has begun.

    In respect of the Ulster Unionists, they used to say: “You can’t out-DUP the DUP.”

    A variation of that today may be a warning to the DUP: “You can’t out-TUV the TUV.”

    Let’s see whether they heed it.

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