The Conservatives' latest recruit Lord Trimble today said he had no problem with his new party taking on former Ulster Unionist colleagues in elections in Northern Ireland.
The former Stormont First Minister, who quit the UUP on Tuesday to become a Tory peer, was commenting while campaigning for Scottish Parliament candidates with his leader David Cameron in Gretna Green.
Even though Northern Ireland's Tories failed to make a breakthrough in the March Assembly election, Lord Trimble, who led the Ulster Unionists between 1995 and 2005, said he believed they would fight future elections in the North.
"That has happened before and it will happen again," he said. "One of the consequences of there being proportional representation in so many elections in Northern Ireland is that the electorate have the choice and can vote for more than one party and one candidate.
"We are not in a situation where you are talking about split votes and things like that. "So I think the competition will continue, and it will not be a problem." Mr Cameron and Lord Trimble joined Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie on the campaign trail.
He also used his first public speech at a Tory gathering to attack both Labour and the Scottish National Party. "I can understand people in Scotland being fed up with the Labour Party in national and regional terms," he said.
"Scottish Labour is old Labour, out of touch and out of date and it doesn't have the solutions we need in public services and revitalising the economy. "I can understand people in Scotland being fed up with Labour — but why turn to a party that in terms of its social and economic instincts is, if anything, further to the left."
PA