 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
12 seats in Northern Ireland of the 635 seats in the House of Commons | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 election took place soon after the Sunningdale Agreement, signed 9 December 1973. On 1 January 1974, an Executive was formed under the terms of the Agreement, based on the result of the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly election, with Ulster Unionist Party leader Brian Faulkner as Chief Executive. It had six members from the UUP, four from the nationalist SDLP and one from the Alliance Party. These parties had both been founded in 1970.
Later in January 1974, the Ulster Unionist Council voted against participation in the Executive and Faulkner lost the leadership of the UUP to Harry West. West formed the United Ulster Unionist Council with the Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party (VUPP), founded in 1972 by William Craig, and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), founded in 1971 by Ian Paisley. They agreed that only one anti-Sunningdale Unionist would stand in each constituency. This strategy proved successful, with the UUUC winning 11 of the 12 seats. Seven supporters of Faulkner stood as Pro-Assembly Unionists, including outgoing MPs Stanley McMaster and Rafton Pounder.
On the nationalist side, former Republican Labour Party leader Gerry Fitt had formed the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Fitt held his seat in Belfast West, but the split in the nationalist vote in Fermanagh and South Tyrone allowed Harry West to gain a seat from Unity. Bernadette McAliskey, who had held a seat for Unity since 1969 for Mid Ulster, contested as an independent but lost, again where a split in the nationalist vote allowed a new Unionist MP to gain.
In the election as a whole, the Conservative Party failed to return to government and the Labour Party formed a minority government led by Harold Wilson as Prime Minister.
| Party | MPs | Votes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Change | No. | % | Change | ||
| UUP | 7 |  1 | 232,103 | 32.3% | 21.9 | |
| Vanguard | 3 |  3 | 75,944 | 10.6% | New | |
| DUP | 1 | 1 | 58,656 | 8.2% | New | |
| SDLP | 1 | 1 | 160,437 | 22.4% | New | |
| Pro-Assembly Unionist | 0 |  | 94,301 | 13.1% | Splinter | |
| Alliance | 0 | | 22,660 | 3.2% | New | |
| Unity | 0 | 2 | 17,593 | 2.4% | 15.7 | |
| NI Labour | 0 | | 15,483 | 2.2% | 10.4 | |
| Republican Clubs | 0 | | 15,152 | 2.1% | 2.1 | |
| Independent | 0 | | 25,297 | 3.6% | 3.2 | |
| Total | 12 | | 723,288 | 100 | | |
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 Social Democratic and Labour Party is a social democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLAs) and two members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
Gerard Fitt, Baron Fitt, was a politician from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was a founder and the first leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), a social democratic and Irish nationalist party.
The 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Wednesday, 26 November 2003, after being suspended for just over a year. It was the second election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. Each of Northern Ireland's eighteen Westminster Parliamentary constituencies elected six members by single transferable vote, giving a total of 108 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). The election was contested by 18 parties and many independent candidates.
Arthur Brian Deane Faulkner, Baron Faulkner of Downpatrick,, was the sixth and last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, from March 1971 until his resignation in March 1972. He was also the chief executive of the short-lived Northern Ireland Executive during the first half of 1974.
The Sunningdale Agreement was an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. The agreement was signed by the British and Irish government in Sunningdale, Berkshire, on 9 December 1973. Unionist opposition, violence and a general strike caused the collapse of the agreement in May 1974.
The Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party (VUPP), informally known as Ulster Vanguard, was a unionist political party which existed in Northern Ireland between 1972 and 1978. Led by William Craig, the party emerged from a split in the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and was closely affiliated with several loyalist paramilitary groups. The party was set up in opposition to compulsory power sharing with Irish nationalist parties. It opposed the Sunningdale Agreement and was involved in extra-parliamentary activity against the agreement. However, in 1975, during discussions on the constitutional status of Northern Ireland in the constitutional convention, William Craig suggested the possibility of voluntary power sharing with the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party. In consequence the party split, with dissenters forming the United Ulster Unionist Party. Thereafter Vanguard declined and following poor results in the 1977 local government elections, Craig merged the remainder of Vanguard into the UUP in February 1978.
The Unionist Party of Northern Ireland was a political party founded by Brian Faulkner in September 1974.
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.
Fermanagh and South Tyrone is a Northern Ireland parliamentary constituency in the British House of Commons. It is currently represented by Pat Cullen of Sinn Féin.
Belfast North is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is John Finucane.
Belfast South was a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons.
The by-election held in Fermanagh and South Tyrone on 9 April 1981 is considered by many to be the most significant by-election held in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. It saw the first electoral victory for militant Irish republicanism, which the following year entered electoral politics in full force as Sinn Féin. The successful candidate was the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, who died twenty-six days later.
Henry William West was a Northern Irish unionist politician who served as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 1974 until 1979.
The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention (NICC) was an elected body set up in 1975 by the United Kingdom Labour government of Harold Wilson as an attempt to deal with constitutional issues surrounding the status of Northern Ireland.
The 1986 Northern Ireland by-elections were fifteen by-elections held on 23 January 1986, to fill vacancies in the Parliament of the United Kingdom caused by the resignation in December 1985 of all sitting Unionist Members of Parliament (MPs). The MPs, from the Ulster Unionist Party, Democratic Unionist Party and Ulster Popular Unionist Party, did this to highlight their opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, signed the month before.
The Belfast South by-election was held on 4 March 1982 following the murder of Robert Bradford, Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Member of Parliament for Belfast South.
A power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive was formed following the Northern Ireland Assembly elections of 1973. The executive served as the devolved government of Northern Ireland from 1 January 1974 until its collapse on 28 May 1974.
Leslie Morrell is a former unionist politician in Northern Ireland.
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.
  | This Politics of Northern Ireland related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
