Strabane Conservative party member is rooting for Rishi

WITH the race hotting up between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss to see who will emerge victorious as the new Conservative leader, a Strabane man will be keeping a close eye on proceedings as one of the 160,000 members of the party who is eligible to vote on the final outcome.

Local barrister Shane Quinn is a member of the NI Conservative Party, having joined as he believes, in his own words, that ‘no party in Northern Ireland owns my vote’. Coming from a nationalist background in a largely nationalist, republican town, Mr Quinn admits that his choice is ‘unusual’ but he feels that the party represent his views better ‘than any of their competitors’.

Mr Quinn spoke to Radio Foyle this week about the leadership campaign thus far, how the Protocol will be affected by the new leader and, of course, who he has already voted for in the race.

“I’ve already nailed my colours to the mast in favour of Rishi Sunak. Despite much repetition in the hustings so far, I expect the Protocol and the Protocol Bill to come into sharp focus when the Belfast hustings comes around.

“If I’m honest, the Protocol isn’t my top priority when it comes to choosing where to put my vote, although I fully sympathise with those who do see it as theirs.

“The cost of living crisis and rising price of school uniforms are the types of issues that I, and a lot of people, am interested in having resolved, unless the Protocol affects them. I am confident whoever is PM after the final vote will be committed to resolving issues surrounding the Protocol but I believe that the best solution is one agreed between the UK and EU.”

Finally, asked if whoever emerges victorious will take a different approach to problems in the North, Shane explained, “Whoever is in government in London I think will have a limited scope to solving things on the ground.

“If people continue to return MPs, MLAs and councillors from parties who have no desire to work together and exploit that stance, then there’s only so much anyone in Number Ten can do. I’m hoping NI can move forward away from that.”