A former Ulster Unionist councillor and retired police officer has been selected by the SDLP to contest South Antrim in the Northern Ireland Assembly election scheduled for 6 May 2027.

Linzi McLaren left the UUP in 2025 and resigned her seat on Ards and North Down Borough Council. At the time, she said she did not feel her progressive aspirations were supported by party colleagues and the hierarchy, and she raised concerns about inclusiveness, approaches to the Irish language, and the representation and voice of women.

McLaren served in the PSNI for 18 years, joining in 2004 and retiring in 2022. She was elected to the council in 2023 with 989 first-preference votes.

McLaren said her values have not changed but her perspective has. She described the SDLP as committed to working towards a New Ireland and persuading people by demonstrating delivery in the present. She argued that politics should deliver for people and criticised what she called decay and dither in recent years, presenting the SDLP as an alternative to tribal politics.

She identified issues she intends to highlight: ending violence against women and girls, educational disadvantage, and access to public services and opportunities across South Antrim.

SDLP leader Claire Hanna MP said the party wants to reach beyond traditional political identities to build a New Ireland. She said McLaren's journey reflects conversations happening in homes and communities, and that the SDLP should be a political home for people who believe Northern Ireland can work better while having an open conversation about the future.

South Antrim SDLP representative Roisin Lynch welcomed McLaren and said she looks forward to campaigning with her, offering what she called a real and hopeful alternative to the politics of deadlock and dysfunction.

At the last Assembly election in 2022, Lynch received 3,139 first-preference votes but was not elected. The five seats were won by Sinn Féin's Declan Kearney, Alliance's John Blair, the DUP's Pam Cameron and Trevor Clarke, and the UUP's Steve Aiken.

McLaren's selection follows a defection in the opposite direction: former SDLP branch chair in Fermanagh Ciara Dempsey has joined the UUP and will stand for council in the Clogher Valley area. Dempsey said her values and direction no longer aligned with the SDLP, and UUP leader Jon Burrows said her decision reflects the party they are building.