Congratulations to Naomi Long on her Slugger Award and Chris Lyttle on his Belfast Media Group Award

1.20.00pm GMT Fri 11th Feb 2011

Today I congratulated Naomi Long MP on winning the Slugger O'Toole Politician of the Year award last night and also praised our East Belfast MLA Chris Lyttle on gaining a Belfast Media Group 40 Under 40 accolade.

I said: "This has been an amazing 12 months for Alliance and Naomi's award is the icing on the cake. She ran arguably the most positive election campaign in the history of Northern Ireland politics. This award is extremely well-deserved. Naomi Long is one of the hardest working politicians I know and she continues to lead change in all her work in East Belfast and at Westminster.

"Chris Lyttle's accolade demonstrates the strength in depth and high level of talent we have in the Alliance Party. Chris is a bright, hard-working and popular representative with a great future ahead of him.

"This week not only saw these two accolades for Alliance people, but also saw Larne Independent Councillor Michael Lynch joining Alliance. Our message of positive change is capturing people's imagination and Alliance has massive momentum at present."