East Londonderry (UK Parliament constituency)

Last updated

East Londonderry
County constituency
for the House of Commons
East Londonderry (UK Parliament constituency)
Interactive map of boundaries from 2024
EastLondonderry2024Constituency.svg
Boundary within Northern Ireland
Districts of Northern Ireland Causeway Coast and Glens (part), Derry and Strabane (part) [1]
Electorate 63,491 (December 2019)
Major settlements Coleraine, Limavady and Dungiven
Current constituency
Created 1983
Member of Parliament Gregory Campbell (DUP)
Seats1
Created from Londonderry, Mid Ulster and North Antrim [2]

East Londonderry is a constituency in Northern Ireland represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. Its current Member of Parliament (MP) has been Gregory Campbell of the DUP since 2001.

Contents

Constituency profile

This is a mostly rural constituency stretching from the hill country of the Sperrin Mountains in the south to the Atlantic coast in the north; and from the suburbs of Derry city in the west to the River Bann in the east. The constituency's two main towns are Limavady and Coleraine; other urban areas include the upland town of Dungiven; and the coastal resorts of Portstewart and Portrush (the latter in fact lies in Country Antrim).

Boundaries

The seat was created in boundary changes in 1983, as part of an expansion of Northern Ireland's constituencies from 12 to 17, and was predominantly made up from the old Londonderry constituency, minus the area around the city of Derry itself which formed the new Foyle constituency.

From further revisions in 1995 (when it lost parts of the district of Magherafelt to the Mid Ulster constituency), and until the 2008 revision, it covered exactly the same area as the districts of Coleraine and Limavady. The inclusion of all of Coleraine Borough means that part of the East Londonderry constituency is actually in County Antrim.

For the 2010 general election, the East Londonderry constituency was formed by the following local government areas, as confirmed by the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Constituencies Order. [3]

Prior to the 2024 general election, the following additions were made to the East Londonderry constituency: [4] [1]

History

The constituency has a Unionist plurality although, in many elections, nationalists have polled 40% of the vote, and the middle-of-the-road Alliance Party sometimes above 10%. Until the 2010 election the main interest in elections had been the contest between the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party. The UUP were normally ahead of the DUP until the 2001 general election, when the DUP finally overtook them.

The 2001 election was seen at a province-wide level as a battle over the Belfast Agreement, with the DUP opposed to it and most of the UUP in favour. However, that situation was seemingly reversed in East Londonderry, in which the sitting Ulster Unionist MP, William Ross, was completely opposed to all involvement with the Agreement and its institutions, whilst the DUP candidate, Gregory Campbell, was a minister in the executive set up by the agreement. Many commentators joked that the DUP's gain meant that East Londonderry now had a more pro-agreement MP than before.[ citation needed ]

In the 2016 EU referendum 21,098 people in the constituency voted to remain in the European Union, 19,455 voted to leave, and 10 votes were rejected.

Unionist candidates failed to get a majority of the votes for the first time at the 2019 election, although they secured a plurality of votes. The seat had a considerable swing to Sinn Féin in the 2024 general election of over 12%, but the DUP retained the constituency, albeit with a very narrow majority of 179 votes.

Members of Parliament

The Member of Parliament since the 2001 general election is Gregory Campbell of the Democratic Unionist Party. In that election he defeated William Ross of the Ulster Unionist Party who had represented East Londonderry since 1983 and its predecessor seat of Londonderry between 1974 and 1983.

ElectionMember [5] Party
1983 William Ross UUP
2001 Gregory Campbell DUP

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

2024 general election: East Londonderry [6]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
DUP Gregory Campbell 11,506 27.9 −12.1
Sinn Féin Kathleen McGurk11,32727.4+12.0
SDLP Cara Hunter 5,26012.7−3.7
TUV Allister Kyle4,36310.6New
Alliance Richard Stewart3,7349.0−5.5
UUP Glen Miller3,4128.3−0.8
Aontú Gemma Brolly1,0432.5−1.8
Green (NI) Jen McCahon4451.1New
NI Conservatives Claire Scull1870.5New
Majority 1790.5−23.9
Turnout 41,27754.5−2.3
Registered electors 75,707
DUP hold Swing −12.1

Elections in the 2010s

2019 general election: East Londonderry [7]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
DUP Gregory Campbell 15,765 40.1 −8.0
SDLP Cara Hunter 6,15815.7+4.9
Sinn Féin Dermot Nicholl6,12815.6−10.9
Alliance Chris McCaw5,92115.1+8.9
UUP Richard Holmes3,5999.2+1.6
Aontú Seán McNicholl1,7314.4New
Majority 9,60724.4+2.8
Turnout 39,30256.8−4.4
Registered electors 69,194
DUP hold Swing −6.5
2017 general election: East Londonderry [8] [9]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
DUP Gregory Campbell 19,723 48.1 +5.9
Sinn Féin Dermot Nicholl10,88126.5+6.7
SDLP Stephanie Quigley4,42310.8−1.5
UUP Richard Holmes3,1357.6−7.8
Alliance Chris McCaw2,5386.2−1.4
NI Conservatives Liz St Clair-Legge3300.8−0.4
Majority 8,84221.6−0.8
Turnout 40,58061.2+9.3
Registered electors 67,038
DUP hold Swing -0.5
2015 general election: East Londonderry [10] [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
DUP Gregory Campbell 14,663 42.2 +7.6
Sinn Féin Caoimhe Archibald 6,85919.8+0.5
UUP William McCandless [12] 5,33315.4−2.4
SDLP Gerry Mullan 4,26812.3−3.1
Alliance Yvonne Boyle2,6427.6+2.1
CISTA Neil Paine5271.5New
NI Conservatives Liz St Clair-Legge4221.2New
Majority 7,80422.4+7.1
Turnout 34,71451.9−3.4
Registered electors 66,926
DUP hold Swing +3.5
2010 general election: East Londonderry [13]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
DUP Gregory Campbell 12,097 34.6 −6.3
Sinn Féin Cathal Ó hOisín 6,74219.3+1.9
UCU-NF Lesley Macaulay6,21817.8−1.9
SDLP Thomas Conway5,39915.4−3.9
TUV William Ross 2,5727.4New
Alliance Barney Fitzpatrick1,9225.5+3.1
Majority 5,35515.3−6.5
Turnout 34,95055.3−8.4
Registered electors 63,220
DUP hold Swing −5.7

Elections in the 2000s

2005 general election: East Londonderry [14]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
DUP Gregory Campbell 15,225 42.9 +10.8
UUP David McClarty 7,49821.1−6.3
SDLP John Dallat 6,07717.1−3.7
Sinn Féin Billy Leonard 5,70916.1+0.5
Alliance Yvonne Boyle9242.6−1.5
Independent Malcolm Harry Samuel710.2New
Majority 7,72721.8+17.1
Turnout 35,50460.3−5.9
Registered electors 58,461
DUP hold Swing +8.5
2001 general election: East Londonderry [15]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
DUP Gregory Campbell 12,813 32.1 +6.1
UUP William Ross 10,91227.4−8.6
SDLP John Dallat 8,29820.8−1.2
Sinn Féin Francie Brolly 6,22115.6+6.6
Alliance Yvonne Boyle1,6254.1−1.9
Majority 1,9014.7N/A
Turnout 39,86966.2+1.4
Registered electors 60,215
DUP gain from UUP Swing −7.4

Elections in the 1990s

1997 general election: East Londonderry [16]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
UUP William Ross 13,558 36.0 −29.1
DUP Gregory Campbell 9,76726.0New
SDLP Arthur Doherty 8,27322.0+1.9
Sinn Féin Malachy O'Kane3,4639.0+5.5
Alliance Yvonne Boyle2,4276.0−1.3
NI Conservatives James Holmes4361.0−3.4
Natural Law Clare Gallen1000.3New
National Democrats Ian Anderson 810.2New
Majority 3,79410.0−25.2
Turnout 38,10264.8−5.0
Registered electors 58,938
UUP hold Swing −23.8

1997 changes are compared to the notional figures from 1992. [17]

Notional 1992 UK general election result: East Londonderry
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
UUP N/A23,287 64.9 N/A
SDLP N/A7,13419.9N/A
Alliance N/A2,6347.3N/A
NI Conservatives N/A1,5894.4N/A
Sinn Féin N/A1,2613.5N/A
Registered electors N/A
Majority 16,15345.0N/A
1992 general election: East Londonderry [18]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
UUP William Ross 30,370 57.6 −2.9
SDLP Arthur Doherty 11,84322.4+3.2
Sinn Féin Pauline Davey-Kennedy5,32010.1−1.1
Alliance Patrick McGowan3,6136.8+0.2
NI Conservatives Allan Elder1,5893.0New
Majority 18,52735.20.0
Turnout 52,73569.8+1.1
Registered electors 75,587
UUP hold Swing

Elections in the 1980s

1987 general election: East Londonderry [19]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
UUP William Ross 29,532 60.5 +22.6
SDLP Arthur Doherty 9,37519.2+0.9
Sinn Féin John Davey5,46411.2−2.6
Alliance Patrick McGowan3,2376.6+1.9
Workers' Party Francie Donnelly9351.9+0.3
Green Malcolm Samuel2810.6New
Majority 20,15735.2+21.1
Turnout 48,82468.7−9.6
Registered electors 71,031
UUP hold Swing
By-election 1986: East Londonderry [20]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
UUP William Ross 30,922 93.9 +56.0
"For the Anglo-Irish Agreement""Peter Barry" (Wesley Robert Williamson) [21] 2,0016.1New
Majority 28,92187.8+73.7
Turnout 32,92346.8−29.5
Registered electors 70,038
UUP hold Swing N/A
1983 general election: East Londonderry [22]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
UUP William Ross 19,469 37.9
DUP James McClure 12,20723.8
SDLP Arthur Doherty 9,39718.3
Sinn Féin John Davey7,07313.8
Alliance Martha McGrath2,4014.7
Workers' Party Francie Donnelly8191.6
Majority 7,26214.1
Turnout 51,36676.3
Registered electors 67,306
UUP win (new seat)

Demographics

On Census day 2021 there were 103,285 people living in the East Londonderry parliamentary constituency. [23] Of these:

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Final Recommendations Report of the 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituencies.PDF" (PDF). 23 June 2023. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  2. "'Londonderry East', June 1983 up to May 1997". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  3. "The Parliamentary Constituencies (Northern Ireland) Order 2008". legislation.gov.uk.
  4. "Boundary Commission publish their 2023 Review of Parliamentary Consitutencies – Northern Ireland Elects". nielects.com. 2 July 2023. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  5. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "L" (part 4)
  6. "Statement of Persons Nominated and Notice of Poll". Electoral Office for Northern Ireland. 7 June 2024. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
  7. "East Londonderry Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  8. "Election of a Member of Parliament for the EAST LONDONDERRY Constituency – Statement of Persons Nominated and Notice of Poll". Electoral Office of Northern Ireland. 11 May 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
  9. "UK Parliamentary Election Result 2017 – East Londonderry" . Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  10. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  11. "The Electoral Office of Northern Ireland – EONI". eoni.org.uk.
  12. "Cllr William McCandless selected as Ulster Unionist Westminster candidate for East Londonderry". Ulster Unionist Party. 23 February 2015. Archived from the original on 24 February 2015. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  13. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  14. "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  15. "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  16. "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  17. "BBC Election '97". BBC. 1997. Archived from the original on 5 December 2004.
  18. "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  19. "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  20. "By-election Result". United Kingdom Election Results. Archived from the original on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
  21. Nicholas Whyte (13 May 2003). "Westminster by-elections, 23 January 1986". Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive . Retrieved 31 December 2016.
  22. "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  23. "Parliamentary Constituency 2024". NISRA. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  24. "National identity (person based) – basic detail (classification 1)". NISRA. Retrieved 17 July 2024.

54°56′46″N6°57′11″W / 54.946°N 6.953°W / 54.946; -6.953