Long + Purvis = Less Than One MLA
East Belfast DUP Assembly Member Robin Newton has responded to the publication of the voting figures for members of the Northern Ireland Assembly, showing that Dawn Purvis, despite receiving 100% of the salary of an Assembly Member only turned up for 23% of the votes at Parliament Buildings. The statistics also revealed that the Alliance Assembly Member Naomi Long only managed to make it to half of the votes between September and June.
Robin Newton MLA said,
“Dawn Purvis takes 100% of an Assembly salary yet she only managed to turn up for 23% of the votes in Parliament Buildings. Her pitiful excuse for this was that she turns up to those votes which are of “particular interest” to her. I would suggest her time would be better spent voting on issues of particular interest to the people of East Belfast, which is considerably more than 23% of the time. As for Ms. Long, that she could only find it in herself to attend half of the votes in the Assembly speaks volumes about her commitment to standing up for East Belfast.
Ms. Purvis and Mrs. Long combined equals less than a single Assembly Member when it comes to standing up for East Belfast in Assembly votes.
Dawn Purvis’s self-serving media appearances demanding “full time representation”, going so far as tabling Private Member’s legislation to ban councillors from being MLAs ring a little hollow now. She is a hypocrite who doesn’t provide full time representation whilst running to the press demanding that others do.
People will rightly conclude that media appearances and publicity hunting are more important for both individuals than actually doing the job of fighting for the people of East Belfast in the Northern Ireland Assembly.”
