How the Paisley family have had their chips

The Northern Ireland seat held by first the Rev Ian Paisley and then his son for more than 50 years has been taken in a stunning upset by a candidate who had campaigned against a “smoky bacon border” arising from EU rules.

Ian Paisley Jr lost North Antrim by just 450 votes in the early hours of Friday in the biggest shock of a disappointing night for the DUP, the party his late father founded. His father, a giant of unionism and former first minister, first won the seat in 1970.

It was a stunning setback in a seat where the DUP has enjoyed a majority of at least 10,000 in every election since 1974 and which “Junior” has held for the past 14 years.

The surprise defeat in the DUP’s safest seat came at the hands of Jim Allister, the firebrand leader and founder of the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) and a fierce critic of the post-Brexit Irish Sea border.

“There is no escaping the fact there has been a political earthquake of seismic proportions,” the divisive 71-year-old King’s Counsel barrister boomed from the podium. “After 54 years of the DUP and Ian Paisley dynasty, North Antrim has taken an alternative course.”

He can attribute his victory at least in part to crisps. The Brexit deal for Northern Ireland creates a customs border with Britain while keeping the region subject to hundreds of EU rules, which do not apply in the rest of the UK.

The Windsor Framework prevents a hard land border on the island of Ireland and grants the province lucrative dual access to the UK and EU markets.

In June, the Telegraph first reported how these post-Brexit trading arrangements were threatening to create a “smoky bacon border” that could put Ulster’s iconic Tayto crisps at risk.

Brussels has not renewed market authorisations for eight smoke flavourings over toxicity concerns which meant after a two-year grace period they could not be used in Northern Ireland either.

Crisp giant Tayto could not now use the affected smoke flavourings at its County Armagh headquarters in Northern Ireland.

However, Tayto Group, which bought Edinburgh-founded Golden Wonder in 2006, would still be able to use them in smoky bacon crisps made at its British factories and sell them in Northern Ireland if it used the Windsor Framework’s “green lane” to export them.

The DUP had earned Mr Allister’s wrath after they accepted a deal from Rishi Sunak to end their two-year boycott of Stormont over the Irish Sea border in January.

The decision split unionists, many of whom fear the Brexit deal puts the region’s place in the UK at risk and many who did not believe the DUP’s insistence that the border was now gone.

When The Telegraph contacted Mr Allister for comment over the smoky bacon border, he was not impressed, even if Tayto never confirmed if it used one of the affected flavourings.

But he also scented a golden opportunity a couple of weeks into the election campaign.

“Those who think the Irish Sea border and being subject to EU law is all about dry constitutional issues should sit up and take notice if they enjoy Tayto Smoky Bacon Crisps,” he said in a statement released to the Northern Irish press.

Rare moment of folksiness from firebrand

“The fact that the government and its dud deal with the DUP does nothing to address such madness underscores the stranglehold that the EU is allowed to have over a proclaimed part of the UK.”

The story quickly went viral with Tayto-themed memes being shared on unionist social media and the crisps featuring heavily on campaign materials.

In the TUV’s election broadcast, Mr Allister and his grandchildren bought smoky bacon Tayto crisps from a newsagent in a rare moment of folksiness from the firebrand.

His campaign team even began to send pictures of each other eating the iconic snacks as they canvassed and at Friday’s count.

“We owe you perhaps 3,000 votes,” Sammy Morrison, the TUV director of elections, told The Telegraph on Friday morning.

“It was a very well known, neat and practical example of how the Brexit deal is impacting on daily life on people in Northern Ireland. It resonated with people. These are very popular crisps here.”

He added that the crisps example highlighted just how oversold the DUP deal was to voters.

On Friday morning, a clearly preoccupied Ian Paisley Jr refused to comment as he entered the count centre in Magherafelt. He would demand a partial recount before finally conceding defeat.

Mr Allister accused the DUP of trying to “hoodwink every unionist in this province” in his victory speech.

He said: “The unionist people of North Antrim will not be taken for granted and certainly will not be taken for fools.

“It is beyond shameful that in this part of the United Kingdom there has been that subjugation of sovereignty whereby the foreign institution holds sway and control in our lives.”

It was a sweet moment for Mr Allister, who has history with the Paisley family after quitting the DUP in protest when Mr Paisley Sr entered power-sharing with Sinn Fein in 2007.

Nigel Farage had also controversially said he personally backed staunch Brexiteer Ian Paisley Jr to return to Westminster, despite Reform UK’s electoral pact with the TUV.

Ian Paisley Jr attempted to put a brave face on it. “The tides of life ebb and flow, as we all know,” he said.

There are also possible consequences for the future status of Northern Ireland.

Third historic breakthrough

As well as North Antrim, the DUP lost South Antrim to the Ulster Unionist Party. Lagan Valley, the seat held by former leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson for 27 years before he resigned in March after being accused of historical sex offences which he denies, was lost to the centrist Alliance.

The three seat drop meant the DUP would only return five MPs to Westminster. Sinn Fein won seven seats, the first time the nationalist party was the biggest Northern Irish party in parliament.

It was their third historic breakthrough in two years after landmark triumphs in Assembly elections in 2022 and local elections last year. They wasted no time in using the victory to press for their goal of a referendum on Irish reunification by 2030

Unionist voters remain in the majority in Northern Ireland but their support is split between three parties,

The DUP, as they have done before, blamed their defeat on “divided unionism” but Mr Allister is unrepentant, despite the risk of a border poll on Irish unity and the break-up of his beloved union.

“The smoky bacon border may have been the final straw that brought down the house of Paisley,” said Amanda Ferguson, a respected political journalist from Belfast.

She added: “Unionists in North Antrim were clearly angry at the oversold Brexit deal and when Jim Allister told them there was a threat to the iconic Tayto, well Paisley Jr had his chips.

“Westminster should brace itself for Jim Allister’s arrival.”