year's European Parliamentary election, topping the poll with 175,000 first preference votes, 32% of the total. He proved to be an assiduous MEP, participating in many more parliamentary debates and asking many more questions than his fellow Northern Irish MEPS Bairbre de Brún of Sinn Féin and Jim Nicholson of the Ulster Unionist Party. Allister was also active as a member of the European Parliament Fisheries Committee and was ranked by the pressure group TaxPayers' Alliance as the most "hard-working, transparent and pro-taxpayer" of the 75 United Kingdom MEPs during the 2004-2009 European Parliament. On 27 March 2007, Allister resigned from the DUP because of the party's decision to enter into government with Sinn Féin. It was the second occasion on which he had resigned from the party. In late 2007, there was speculation that Allister might found a new Unionist political party. It was also claimed, on 10 October 2007, that he had been approached by the UK Independence Party (UKIP), but he in fact proceeded to found the Traditional Unionist Voice movement on 7 December 2007. In the 2009 European elections, this time standing as a candidate of Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), Allister polled 13.5% of the first preference votes cast but was not re-elected. Jim Allister stood as a TUV candidate in the 2010 Westminster Parliamentary election in the North Antrim constituency. Having polled well in the previous year's European election, Allister stood a chance of winning the seat. This would have been a tremendous loss to the DUP, as it has historically been the party's safest seat and the seat of DUP founder and former party leader Ian Paisley. He came second in the poll with 7,114 votes to the DUP's Ian Paisley Jr who polled 19,672 votes. In the 2011 Northern Ireland Assembly election, Allister was elected in the North Antrim constituency for the TUV and retained his seat in the 2016, 2017 and 2022 Assembly elections. In August 2012, Allister called the Parades Commission "little Hitlers" when they placed restrictions on a loyalist parade. Allister holds conservative views on social policy and is a supporter of the evangelical creationist lobby group, the Caleb Foundation. Allister opposed a motion pardoning gay men convicted for formerly illegal homosexual acts. An August 2021, opinion poll by the polling company LucidTalk found a large rise in support for Allister's party the TUV to 14% of first preference vote