WEST Belfast’s ‘anti-woke’ warrior, Tony Mallon is set to run for election once again in 2023 – despite gaining 0.3 per cent of the vote in May’s Assembly election.
 
Mallon, who has previously described the Andersonstown News as a “Marxist rag”, contacted the paper to request an interview days after he launched his own political party calling for an independent Northern Ireland.
 
Mallon describes himself as a social libertarian which he describes as a “balance between capitalism and socialism”. On tackling deprivation, he told us that one of his priorities is housing.
 
“I think there is something like 5,000 people waiting on homes in West Belfast alone and we have these far-left EU globalists asking for unfettered migration of people coming into the country.
 
“When you have such an extreme policy like that, all that you are doing is galvanising the far-right because they will say that everyone is an enemy. What we need is to have a points-based immigration system.”
 
A key component of Mr Mallon's policies stem from an opposition to the lockdowns which were brought in as a result of the Covid pandemic. He says he was “demonised” and labelled a conspiracy theorist for his views.
 
“With the cost of living crisis I think it is an absolute cheek for Sinn Féin, the SDLP and PBP to be protesting about the cost of living when they are the ones that have caused it,” he said. “Sinn Féin have been in power for 20 years so what are they going to do different? They are not the real change, I am the real change,” he said.

When we put it to Mr Mallon that the people of West Belfast rejected his politics at the last election where he picked up 129 first preference votes and was eliminated in the first round, he said that a lot of people in West Belfast don’t know how the STV voting system works and that he plans to educate people on how to vote.
 
“I also feel that the Andersonstown News painted a really bad picture whenever I was giving a balanced view and a lot of people got the wrong impression of me,” Mr Mallon claimed. 

Tony Mallon is standing in the Colin DEA.