The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) has chosen party chairman Allister Kyle to stand in East Londonderry at next year’s Assembly election.

Mr Kyle is a councillor on Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council and runs his own electrical business. He previously served on the board of Coleraine Football Club and is active in the Loyal Orders.

Announcing his candidacy, he said the constituency needed a stronger TUV presence at Stormont. He pointed to the work of North Antrim MLA Timothy Gaston on the Executive Office Committee and argued that a TUV member on the agriculture committee would increase scrutiny of the minister.

Mr Kyle described himself as a potential advocate for rural communities and accused established unionist parties of breaking promises on the post-Brexit trading border in the Irish Sea.

He said unionist candidates in the last Assembly election pledged not to enter an executive while the sea border remained, but that sitting MLAs for the area later joined a Sinn Féin-led administration that implements the protocol.

He cited the party’s strongest-ever Westminster result in the constituency as evidence of voter dissatisfaction and said he aimed to build on that support.

The TUV candidate said his campaign would focus on opposition to the Irish Sea border, immigration, agricultural pressures and what he called a radical woke agenda.

Next year’s Assembly election is expected to see active contests across Northern Ireland as parties begin placing candidates and shaping campaign messages around public services, agriculture, constitutional matters and the economy.