The TUV has dismissed claims that the party is haemorrhaging members in North Down after its general election candidate resigned.
William Cudworth, who polled nearly 700 votes in last May's Westminster election, quit Jim Allister's party last week.
He had hoped to run for the TUV in the forthcoming assembly election. However, following discussions with party officers earlier this month, Mr Cudworth withdrew from the North Down selection process and subsequently resigned from the TUV.
It is unclear what prompted his resignation, but an email circulated to journalists at the weekend claimed there was wider concern among North Down TUV members about a policy of running 'paper candidates' as part of a bid to secure election broadcast slots. 'Paper candidate' is term given to someone who stands in a constituency where there is no real prospect of them being elected.
According to the email, the TUV planned to run 18 candidates in total, a move that led to the resignation of 15 members in North Down. It also said Mr Cudworth had already been selected to run for the TUV in the constituency – a claim dismissed by the party's headquarters.
A TUV spokesman said the email was "full of inaccuracies" and that there had been no other resignations beyond Mr Cudworth's.
"The talk about running 18 candidates is nonsense and manifestly so because TUV will qualify for a PEB (party election broadcast) by running 12 candidates and we have already selected 12 with more to follow," the spokesman said.
Mr Cudworth works at Bombardier in east Belfast and joined the TUV in 2014 in the wake of the flag protests.
