NI election candidate Tim Collins takes aim at his own voters in bizarre BBC interview

An election candidate left viewers gobsmacked when he appeared to have a dig at voters in the constituency he was running in.

UUP candidate Tim Collins said people in the North Down constituency were more interested in “potholes and hedges” than international affairs as he looked set to take place third there.

The retired colonel said independent unionist candidate Alex Easton is doing well in the count, although not all the ballot boxes had been opened yet.

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“People in North Down, I think they don’t want someone who doesn’t live in Northern Ireland,” he told the BBC. “They’re interested in local politics, they’re not interested in cutting VAT, they’re not interested in international affairs. They’re interested in potholes and hedges.”

Asked would he run again in five years’ time, Col Collins said he could not predict what he would be doing then: “I was asked to do this, and I’ll happily do it. I financed myself and I’m pleased I did it because, I’m putting something back into Northern Ireland and I’m pleased to do that.”

He also defended comments he made during the campaign about his Rolls Royce, which he said was more expensive to insure in Northern Ireland.

“It’s Northern Ireland, they don’t understand these things. The point I was making is it’s an expensive car, it is cheaper to insure in England than it is here,” he said.

One viewer simply observed: "A bit of an embarrassment there for the UUP." While another wrote on X: "All political careers end in failure, some even fail before they’ve had a career!"

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