Antrim councillor Mel Lucas has been selected as the TUV candidate for South Antrim.
 
Speaking after his selection Councillor Lucas, a married father of four, said:
 
“I am honoured to have been selected as the TUV candidate for South Antrim. People throughout this constituency feel badly let down by the DUP generally but particularly the local MP.
 
“Shortly after his election in 2005 William McCrea told the Commons that it was “disgusting” that Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams were parading in and out of Downing Street while “justice demands that they be paraded before a court and found guilty of crimes”.
 
“Two years later he addressed the House of Commons and said:
“As far as I am concerned, the idea of Sinn Fein in a Government is obnoxious. It makes me sick to the pit of my stomach. My thoughts are with the innocent victims, Protestant and Roman Catholic, throughout the community, who have been slaughtered by the IRA and so-called loyalist terrorist organisations. Neither has a place in a democratic society.”
 
“Yet today William McCrea sits behind his lavish walnut desk - purchased at the taxpayers' expense - as one of those propping up Sinn Fein government, day and daily.
  
 “William McCrea may have got over his revulsion at terrorists in government, but many of his constituents remain sickened by Sinn Fein/IRA ruling over us.  As the only candidate opposed to terrorists in government I look forward to giving those people a voice.
 
“I will also be giving the people of South Antrim the opportunity to vote for a candidate who is pledged to do a fulltime job as an MP. Scandalously, double jobber William McCrea has been absent from 53% of the votes in the last Parliament, missing a votes on the Sexual Orientation Regulations which restricted religious liberty and a free speech amendment to “homophobic hatred” legislation.
 
“I look forward to bringing the TUV message of democratic devolution as opposed to undemocratic mandatory collation which currently governs Ulster to every corner of South Antrim and offering a candidate committed to the job of representing them fulltime at Westminster”.
 
Commenting on the election battle ahead in South Antrim TUV Leader Jim Allister     said:-
 
"In politics the greatest disappointment often comes over those from whom you expect the most. When William McCrea was elected in 2005 on a manifesto which solemnly pledged mandatory coalition with IRA/Sinn Fein was 'OUT OF THE QUESTION' his constituents were entitled to expect that he'd stand by that promise. Instead by his actions and votes in the Assembly he has helped deliver that same IRA/Sinn Fein right to the heart and top of government. Even in recent times he was one of the DUP snowmen whose opposition melted away to further empowering Sinn Fein through the devolution of policing and justice.
 
"As a serial double-jobber he has sold South Antrim short. Being an MP means turning up more than once a week. Yet for the DUP double jobbers Westminster is only somewhere to go when Stormont isn't sitting.
 
"An MP who hasn't thought his constituents worthy of full-time representation in Parliament is someone unworthy of another vote. Out with the part-timers on full-time pay."