Timothy James Gaston (born October 1988) is a

Traditional Unionist Voice The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. In common with all other Northern Irish unionist parties, the TUV's political programme has as its '' sine qua non'' the preservation of Northern Ireland's pl ...

(TUV) politician, serving as a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several nation ...

(MLA) for North Antrim since July 2024. Prior to this, Gaston had been a Mid and East Antrim Borough Councillor for the Bannside DEA from

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

to 2024.

Political career

Gaston's first electoral contest was at the 2011 local elections, where he was the running mate to Ballymena Councillor, Roy Gillespie, in the Bannside District. He was later co-opted onto the council in February 2013, for the Ballymena South District, following the resignation of Davy Tweed. Gaston was elected onto the new Mid and East Antrim Borough Council at the 2014 local elections, topping the poll in Bannside. In April 2015, he was appointed as the first deputy mayor of Mid and East Antrim. He was the TUV candidate in North Antrim at the 2015 general election, finishing second with 6,561 votes (15.7%), against Ian Paisley Jr of the

Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist, Ulster loyalism, loyalist, British nationalist and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who ...

(DUP). At the

2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election The 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2016. It was the fifth election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. 1,281,595 individuals were registered to vote in the election (representing ...

, he was the running mate in North Antrim to sitting Assembly member and party leader,

Jim Allister James Hugh Allister (born 2 April 1953) is a Northern Irish unionist politician and barrister who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for North Antrim since the 2024 general election. He founded the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) in 20 ...

. Gaston was eliminated on the sixth count, with his transfers helping elect Allister. Gaston stood again at the 2017 Assembly election, but was not successful. At the 2017 general election, Gaston stood again in North Antrim, where he came fourth with 3,282 votes (6.8%).

Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly

In July 2024, he was co-opted to the Northern Ireland Assembly to succeed Allister, following the latter’s

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

as MP for North Antrim.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaston, Timothy Living people Traditional Unionist Voice MLAs Traditional Unionist Voice councillors Councillors in County Antrim 1980s births