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12 seats in Northern Ireland of the 630 seats in the House of Commons | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1970 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 31 March with 12 MPs elected in single-seat constituencies using first-past-the-post as part of the wider general election in the United Kingdom. It was the first general election held after the Representation of the People Act 1969 which reduced the voting age from 21 to 18.
The Ulster Unionists lost seats to the Protestant Unionist Party led by Ian Paisley, moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, and to Unity, a nationalist organisation which had won a by-election in 1969.
In the election as a whole, the Labour Party failed to return to government and the Conservative Party, which included the Ulster Unionists, formed a government led by Edward Heath as Prime Minister. This was the last parliament where the UUP took the Conservative whip in the House of Commons, breaking with them after the Parliament of Northern Ireland was suspended by the Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972.
1964 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland [1] [2] [3] | |||||||||||||||
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Party | Candidates | Votes | |||||||||||||
Stood | Elected | Gained | Unseated | Net | % of total | % | No. | Net % | |||||||
UUP | 12 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 66.7 | 54.2 | 422,041 | 7.6 | ||||||
Unity | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 16.7 | 18.1 | 140,930 | 15.6 | ||||||
NI Labour | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 12.6 | 98,194 | 0.4 | ||||||
Protestant Unionist | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8.3 | 4.5 | 35,303 | 4.5 | ||||||
Republican Labour | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8.3 | 3.9 | 30,649 | 0.5 | ||||||
Ind. Unionist | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 2.3 | 17,787 | 2.3 | ||||||
Ulster Liberal | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1.4 | 10,929 | 3.5 | ||||||
National Democratic | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 10,349 | 1.3 | ||||||
Independent Labour | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 7,565 | 1.0 | ||||||
Independent | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 4,290 | 0.4 |
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded as the Ulster Unionist Council in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movement. Following the partition of Ireland, it was the governing party of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. It was supported by most unionist voters throughout the conflict known as the Troubles, during which time it was often referred to as the Official Unionist Party (OUP).
The 1970 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 18 June 1970. It resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, which defeated the governing Labour Party under Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The Liberal Party, under its new leader Jeremy Thorpe, lost half its seats. The Conservatives, including the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), secured a majority of 30 seats. This general election was the first in which people could vote from the age of 18, after passage of the Representation of the People Act the previous year, and the first UK election in which party affiliations of candidates were put on the ballots.
The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended because of its inability to restore order during the Troubles, resulting in the introduction of direct rule. It was abolished under the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.
Unionism in Ireland is a political tradition that professes loyalty to the crown of the United Kingdom and to the union it represents with England, Scotland and Wales. The overwhelming sentiment of Ireland's Protestant minority, unionism mobilised in the decades following Catholic Emancipation in 1829 to oppose restoration of a separate Irish parliament. Since Partition in 1921, as Ulster unionism its goal has been to retain Northern Ireland as a devolved region within the United Kingdom and to resist the prospect of an all-Ireland republic. Within the framework of the 1998 Belfast Agreement, which concluded three decades of political violence, unionists have shared office with Irish nationalists in a reformed Northern Ireland Assembly. As of February 2024, they no longer do so as the larger faction: they serve in an executive with an Irish republican First Minister.
The October 1974 United Kingdom general election took place on Thursday 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members of the House of Commons. It was the second general election held that year; the first year that two general elections were held in the same year since 1910; and the first time that two general elections were held less than a year apart from each other since the 1923 and 1924 elections, which took place 10 months apart.
The Irish component of the 1918 United Kingdom general election took place on 14 December 1918. It was the final United Kingdom general election to be held throughout Ireland, as the next election would happen following Irish independence. It is a key moment in modern Irish history, seeing the overwhelming defeat of the moderate nationalist Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP), which had dominated the Irish political landscape since the 1880s, and a landslide victory for the radical Sinn Féin party. Sinn Féin had never previously stood in a general election, but had won six seats in by-elections in 1917–1918. The party had vowed in its manifesto to establish an independent Irish Republic. In Ulster, however, the Unionist Party was the most successful party.
Mid Ulster is a parliamentary constituency in the UK House of Commons. The current MP is Cathal Mallaghan, of Sinn Féin, who was first elected at the 2024 election.
North Down is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is Alex Easton, elected at the 2024 United Kingdom general election.
United Ireland, also referred to as Irish reunification or a New Ireland, is the proposition that all of the island of Ireland should be a single sovereign state. At present, the island is divided politically: the sovereign state of Ireland has jurisdiction over the majority of Ireland, while Northern Ireland, which lies entirely within the Irish province of Ulster, is part of the United Kingdom. Achieving a united Ireland is a central tenet of Irish nationalism and Republicanism, particularly of both mainstream and dissident republican political and paramilitary organisations. Unionists support Northern Ireland remaining part of the United Kingdom and oppose Irish unification.
The Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the end of World War I.
The 1922 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 15 November 1922. There were ten constituencies, seven single-seat constituencies with elected by FPTP and three two-seat constituencies with MPs elected by bloc voting. Only two of the constituencies had contested elections.
The 1924 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 29 October as part of the wider general election in the United Kingdom. There were ten constituencies, seven single-seat constituencies with elected by FPTP and three two-seat constituencies with MPs elected by bloc voting.
The 1929 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 30 May as part of the wider general election. There were ten constituencies, seven single-seat constituencies with elected by FPTP and three two-seat constituencies with MPs elected by bloc voting.
The 1951 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 25 October as part of the wider general election with 12 MPs elected in single-seat constituencies using first-past-the-post.
The 1955 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 26 May as part of the wider general election with 12 MPs elected in single-seat constituencies using first-past-the-post.
The February 1974 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 28 February with 12 MPs elected in single-seat constituencies using first-past-the-post as part of the wider general election in the United Kingdom.
The October 1974 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 10 October with 12 MPs elected in single-seat constituencies using first-past-the-post as part of the wider general election in the United Kingdom.
The 1979 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 3 May with 12 MPs elected in single-seat constituencies using first-past-the-post as part of the wider general election in the United Kingdom.