THE LEADER OF the SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood has condemned attempts to intimidate candidates across the North after a series of incidents in recent days.

The leader said West Belfast candidate and food bank director Paul Doherty was approached by men in the Shankill area of the city last night and told that he and his team would not be welcome and would have their campaign materials taken.

East Belfast Candidate Charlotte Carson had election posters set on fire on Cyprus Avenue while Strangford Candidate Conor Houston had more than 20 posters stolen in the Newtownards area at the end of last week.

The 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election is due to be held on 5 May 2022. It will elect 90 members.

The incidents follow the news that Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie’s constiutency office was attacked.

A window was smashed at his property in Portadown, Co Armagh, hours after Beattie announced that his party was withdrawing from participating in loyalist rallies against Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol.

Colum Eastwood hit out at the “violent thugs” who were trying to intimidate the candidates.

“We have come under attack from violent thugs before. We have beaten them every time. We will beat them again.

“Some people want to make this election campaign a toxic race to the bottom on protocol and identity politics. They want to stop us reaching out to the people across all our communities who are begging for help to heat their homes and feed their kids – real problems that transcend political or community background. Wherever people need help, the SDLP will be there for them. We won’t back down.”

Eastwood said these attacks are even more outrageous because they have been committed against a new generation of leaders in his party.

“Our candidates are a threat to no one but those who want to keep us all in the past. Paul, Charlotte and Conor are shattering old certainties, they are stepping up and stepping in to put people first. And they will have my support every step of the way,” he added.