A former television anchorman is set to contest the Westminster seat vacated by disgraced MP Iris Robinson.
Mike Nesbitt, who worked for both BBC Northern Ireland and Ulster Television, has been selected as a prospective candidate for the Ulster Unionist-Conservative Party alliance in Strangford.
The 52-year-old was selected by UUP members in the constituency yesterday.
While the decision will have to be ratified by the party executive and the joint Unionist and Tory candidacy committee, those are seen as largely rubber-stamping exercises.
The high-profile ex-broadcaster is expected to resign from his current role as one of Northern Ireland’s four Victims’ Commissioners ahead of the forthcoming general election.
He will be attempting to overturn a 13,000-plus majority secured by the Democratic Unionists when Mrs Robinson retained her seat in 2005.
The 60-year-old wife of DUP First Minister Peter Robinson resigned from her seat and left the party after revelations about her affair with a 19-year-old.
She is currently the subject of a police investigation over claims that she obtained £50,000 from two developer friends to help her lover set up in business, but failed to declare it.
Her husband temporarily stepped down from his First Minister role when the scandal broke in January in a bid to clear his name of claims that he did not alert the appropriate authorities when he became aware of his wife’s dealings.
He returned to the post just before the signing of the landmark agreement with Sinn Féin over policing and parades earlier this month after saying a senior QC had found he had no case to answer.
Since then he has faced calls to publish the findings of the investigation carried out by Paul Maguire.
Mr Nesbitt, a father of two sons, is married to current UTV anchor Lynda Bryans.
Before he left the network in 2006, the couple fronted the evening news as a husband and wife team.
Two years later he was appointed to the newly formed Victims’ Commission, a body set up to steer and deliver Government policy on support for those bereaved and injured in the Troubles.
PA