e Conservative candidate for South Belfast, Ben Manton, condemned the murder of former IRA man, Gerard Davison, who was shot dead in the Markets area, this morning.

The Conservatives’ candidate for Upper Bann, Amandeep Singh Bhogal, has travelled to India to sell Northern Ireland to opinion formers in the Sub-Continent.

The Conservatives’ candidate for East Belfast, Neil Wilson, has slammed the area’s politicians for “falling asleep at the wheel of this constituency’s economy”, after it was announced that the Howden UK factory at Queen’s Road will close, costing 100 jobs.

The Conservatives’ Westminster candidate for East Belfast, Neil Wilson, has urged local political representatives to “remember the constituency’s industrial heritage and prioritise industry in East Belfast”.

A bomb which exploded at Crawford Square in Londonderry represents “an attack on the whole community” and was “irresponsible in the extreme”, according to the Conservative Party’s Westminster candidate for Foyle, Hamish Badenoch.

The Conservative Party’s Westminster candidate has said that he is “the only remotely centre-right option on the ballot paper in North Down”.  Mark Brotherston described a vote for any of his opponents as “a vote that risks putting Ed Miliband into Number 10 Downing Street and Ed Balls back into Number 11”.

The Conservative Party’s Westminster candidate for South Down, Felicity Buchan, has welcomed Jim Wells’ decision to resign as Stormont health minister, but she also challenged election hopefuls from UKIP and the UUP to spell out openly their views on same sex relationships.   Mr Wells, who is the DUP’s South Down parliamentary candidate, stepped down after making remarks implying that there is a link between homosexuality and child abuse in the home, at a pre-election hustings.

A Conservative candidate has accused two unionist parties of “fantasy politics” in their election manifestos, rather than concentrating on what they can achieve.  Johnny Andrews pointed out that the DUP’s proposal to build a bridge or a tunnel to Scotland is “a nice idea in theory but clearly not affordable”, while the Ulster Unionists’ have proposed cutting VAT for the hospitality industry, across the UK, which “they simply have no ability to deliver”.

The cancellation of a symposium to discuss the Charlie Hebdo massacre, arranged by Queen’s University, sends out “a confused and regrettable message about free speech”, according to the Conservative Party’s East Belfast Westminster candidate, Neil Wilson.   QUB’s vice chancellor, Professor Patrick Johnston, who took the decision, cited fears about a security risk for delegates and concerns about the university’s reputation. 

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers, joined Johnny Andrews, Conservative Party Parliamentary candidate for Strangford, to campaign in Newtownards on Friday, following the party's local manifesto launch.