Alliance blasts UUP over failure to appoint any female party spokespersons

12.49.07pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 16th May 2007

Alliance Party Women's Champion Cllr Sara Duncan

Alliance Party Women's Champion Cllr Sara Duncan has attacked the Ulster Unionists for failing to appoint any women as party spokespersons, stating that it perfectly illustrated how out of touch the UUP are. Their new list of spokespersons was published yesterday.

The Castlereagh Councillor said: "I was amazed to hear that when the Ulster Unionists published their new list of party spokespersons yesterday, no women were included in the list.

"This perfectly illustrates how out of touch the UUP are with local people. All their Assembly Members are white middle-aged males and their all spokespersons are too. Their party is totally unrepresentative of modern society in Northern Ireland.

"In Monday's Assembly debate on encouraging more women into politics, they were quick to point to their one MP, Lady Sylvia Hermon, in a vain attempt to spare their own blushes over their lack of female elected representatives. They were keen to use her name in the debate on Monday, yet on Tuesday they failed to include her on their new list of spokespersons.

"Sir Reg Empey said he would make getting more women involved in politics a key priority of the UUP in their so-called modernization programme. This was his first chance to do so and he has failed miserably."

ENDS