Diana Armstrong becomes first female UUP MLA since 2022
The Ulster Unionist Party have selected Diana Armstrong as the new MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone after Tom Elliott was appointed to the House of Lords.
Ms Armstrong, who was the party's candidate in the recent UK General Election becomes the first female UUP MLA since Rosemary Barton lost her seat in the constituency at the 2022 Assembly Election.
Speaking to Belfast Live ahead of their party conference this weekend, Deputy Leader Robbie Butler addressed the gender imbalance within the party, who, of the five main parties in Northern Ireland are the only political party not to have had a female leader and, prior to Diana Armstrong's selection, less than 20 per cent of their elected representatives were female.
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"I think we became sort of unfairly critiqued in 2017," he said. "In 2016, we had 16 MLAs, 25 per cent of them at that stage were very talented female MLAs, and unfortunately, in the 2017 election, although they ran, they weren't returned and at that stage, the whole picture changed for us, and it's not one I enjoy looking at.
"Now what I will say is that the MLAs that I have in the team and I work with are incredibly talented, and they're there on their own merit and have the electoral support. But do I want to see it differently? Does Mike want to see it differently? We absolutely do."
Robbie also said that online trolling has been a barrier for some women within the party when it comes to putting themselves forward for selection and that he wanted to encourage more people living with disabilities into front-line politics.
Diana Armstrong becomes the ninth MLA to be coopted into the Assembly since the election in 2022.
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