Summary
Mark Carruthers is joined by Suzanne Breen, David McCann and Jayne McCormick to look ahead to the Assembly election next year.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | With less than a year to go to the next assembly election, things are definitely beginning to stir in the electoral undergrowth. |
| 0:12.7 | There are big challenges up ahead for the party leaders and of course there's talk about which seats could be vulnerable in certain constituencies and open discussion already about whose political careers could perhaps be over |
| 0:24.5 | before a single votes being cast. |
| 0:27.2 | I'm Mark Carruthers, and for this edition of Red Lines, |
| 0:29.3 | we've brought together three experts who know the political terrain better than most |
| 0:33.1 | to talk us through some of the key hotspots and tussles to look out for. |
| 0:37.8 | Dr David McCann is a commentator, podcaster and politics lecturer. |
| 0:41.8 | Suzanne Breen is the political editor of the Belfast Telegraph |
| 0:44.5 | and Jane McCormack is a BBC Northern Ireland political correspondent. |
| 0:48.2 | Welcome to all of you. |
| 0:49.4 | Jane, first of all, let's just start with the challenges that the party leaders face. |
| 0:53.3 | And three of them, no less, |
| 0:55.5 | are fighting their first assembly elections in charge. |
| 0:58.3 | Gavin Robinson, John Burroughs and Claire Hanna. |
| 1:01.0 | And they all face very different uphill battles, Mark. |
| 1:04.9 | I mean, John Burroughs, arguably the newcomer of the trio. |
| 1:09.0 | He is, as one party source, put it to me, an election virgin, not only for himself, but obviously this is a big test for the EUP. |
| 1:15.6 | We know the mess that they are in at the moment around all of this selection. |
| 1:18.6 | I'm sure we will get into that. |
| 1:19.6 | Gavin Robinson has something to prove. |
| 1:22.6 | He knows the 2024 general election results were disastrous for the DUP so he has to be seen to pull |
| 1:29.2 | this back somewhat a couple of weeks ago he was at Stormont and doing a press conference and he said to me |
... |
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