Ulster Unionists say NI being failed as it launches manifesto

This is Mr Beattie’s first Westminster election as UUP leader, having taken over the party in 2021.

Speaking on Wednesday, he said his party had the ideas and the people to provide full representation for people in Northern Ireland.

“We haven’t enthused people in Great Britain, we will set about changing that to make people interested in what’s happening in this part of the UK,” he added.

Mr Beattie said other parties were now seeing the electoral threat the UUP is and he insisted there would be at least one Ulster Unionist MP on the green benches in the Commons after the election.

But he said “failure is not fatal” and that he is proud of all the party’s candidates for running, even if it does not lead to great success on 5 July.

He also said he did not understand the policy of abstentionism taken by Sinn Féin, whose MPs do not take their seats in Westminster.

“I accept it’s there, I accept people vote for Sinn Féin because of that, but the reality is the vast majority still want to have somebody at Westminster but they aren’t represented,” he said.

Some of the party’s pledges in this campaign include: