A candidate for the General Election says he will support the fight to save emergency general surgery at the South West Acute Hospital by sending letters to the Health Minister and the RQIA.

Cross Community Labour Alternative Candidate, Gerry Cullen (64) says that having met with Save Our Acute Services he will send a letter to the bodies when asked for practical plans to save the services, he replied: “Cross Community Labour Alternative through Donal O’Cofaigh [a former Enniskillen councillor and member of SOAS] and other members in Enniskillen have played an active role in highlighting the dangers of the downgrading of the SWAH.

Despite CCLA returning 602 votes in the Assembly election in 2022, Mr. Cullen says he is “enthusiastic” and “optimistic”.

When asked if he should be optimistic considering the loss of the Council seat of Mr. O’Cofaigh in 2023, he pointed to previous left-wing politicians in the area. He said: “The feedback that I am getting is that Donal O' Cofaigh is a man held in high esteem and has done a lot of work in this town, I fully expect Donal to be re-elected [soon].”

Discussing the ongoing cost-of-living crisis he said: “The excuse is the cost-of-living crisis, the cost of food, the cost of energy, the excuse is Brexit, its Ukraine, it’s the Middle East, its Covid.

“There has been no independent analysis as to whether or not large businesses are profiteering.”

He says poverty is worse in the area than when he first began contesting elections 32 years ago.  this election will be his seventh, he has previously won three council elections.

Mr. Cullen promises that if elected he will take his seat in the House of Commons and take an "industrial wage": “I can live on £16,000 a year; I do not need a salary of £86,000.”

“Anything over and above the industrial wage will go back into the community through organisations like St. Vincent de Paul, the Royal British Legion, the foodbanks.”

When asked if he believes these organisations will accept a donation from a politician he said: “I think they would, if something is done respectfully and in good faith, people come back respectfully and in good faith.”

Mr. Cullen is a Brexiter, having voted to leave the European Union, he says he doesn’t regret his vote but “regrets the mistakes of Brexit”

“It was the threat of republican violence by nationalist politicians in Dublin and Northern Ireland that gave us the Border in the Irish Sea.

“It is telling that some of those who were opposed to a hard Border on the island of Ireland are now looking for a hard Border to stop asylum seekers and to stop migrant people crossing the border.

“It is a sad state of affairs that a black man sitting on a bus crossing the border from north to south is very liable to be stopped and questioned.”