1950–1974: The Boroughs of Ballymena and Larne, the Urban Districts of Ballycastle, Ballymoney, and Portrush, the Rural Districts of Ballycastle, Ballymena, and Ballymoney, and in the Rural District of Larne the electoral divisions of Ardclinis, Ballycor, Carncastle, Glenarm North, Glenarm South, Glencloy, and Kilwaughter.
1974–1983: The Boroughs of Ballymena, Carrickfergus, and Larne, the Urban Districts of Ballycastle, Ballymoney, Portrush, and Whitehead, the Rural Districts of Ballycastle, Ballymena, and Ballymoney, and in the Rural District of Larne the electoral divisions of Ardclinis, Ballycor, Carncastle, Eden, Glenarm North, Glenarm South, Glencloy, Glynn, Islandmagee North, Islandmagee South, Kilwaughter, Middle Division, Raloo, and Templecorran.
1983–2010: The District of Ballymena, the District of Ballymoney, and the District of Moyle.
2010–present: The District of Ballymena, the District of Ballymoney, and the District of Moyle wards of Armoy, Ballylough, Bushmills, Bonamargy and Rathlin, Carnmoon, Dalriada, Dunseverick, Glenshesk, Glentaisie, Kinbane, Knocklayd, Moss Side, and Moyarget.
North Antrim has always been a county constituency comprising the northern part of County Antrim in the north-east of Northern Ireland. It has the sea to the north and east and parts of the border with County Londonderry to the west – the County Antrim town of Portrush is included in the East Londonderry constituency (although it was in this seat until 1983).
North Antrim constituency, 1885 – 1922
From 1885, this constituency was one of four county divisions carved out of the former constituency of Antrim. It comprised the baronies of Cary, Dunluce Lower, Dunluce Upper and Kilconway and returned one Member of Parliament from 1885 until 1922, when it was merged into a new Antrim constituency.
North Antrim was re-created in 1950 when the old Antrim two MP constituency was abolished as part of the final move to single member seats.
The Boundary Commission initially proposed alterations for the boundaries of North Antrim prior to the 2010 general election. It was proposed to transfer Ballycastle and the Glens, including Rathlin Island, in Moyle to East Antrim and rename that seat Antrim Coast & Glens. However that proposal raised many questions, with some arguing that the Glens have no natural ties to Jordanstown. Following consultation and revision, the constituency alterations were passed through the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Constituencies Order.
History
North Antrim is an overwhelmingly unionist seat. It first existed from 1885 to 1922. From 1886 to 1974 the Conservative and Unionist members of the United Kingdom House of Commons formed a single Parliamentary party.
Unusually for Ireland, the Liberal Party retained significant strength in this constituency after the split over Home Rule in 1886. The Irish Parliamentary Party never contested the seat.
In 1906 the constituency was won by a Russellite Unionist, at least somewhat linked to the Liberal Party. Although the Unionists regained the seat when the sitting MP retired, the constituency was one of very few Unionist/Liberal marginals in Ireland at both 1910 elections.
A victory for the Unionist candidate in 1918 by 9,621 votes to Sinn Féin's 2,673 votes demonstrated the strength of the unionist support in the area.
In 1922, the constituency reverted to being part of the two member Antrim seat (as it had been before 1885). North Antrim was re-created in 1950 as a larger seat than it had been in its first incarnation. County Antrim, excluding the parts in the Belfast constituencies, was split into two divisions instead of four as previously. The 1950 North Antrim was comparable to the North and Mid Antrim divisions which had existed from 1885 to 1922.
Since 1950 the Westminster elections have been relatively uncompetitive. In 1951, it was one of the last four seats to be uncontested in a UK general election. More recently, one man repeatedly won by a large majority: Ian Paisley was first elected as a Protestant Unionist Party candidate in the 1970 general election after narrowly defeating sitting member Henry Clark. The following year that party changed to the Democratic Unionist Party and Paisley easily held the seat for 40 years until his retirement in 2010. This is the longest continuous period for which the current holding party has held any Northern Irish seat. In elections at all levels, the DUP have frequently had their highest share of the vote in North Antrim and have rarely been seriously challenged.
In March 2010 Ian Paisley announced that he would step down at the 2010 general election. His son Ian Paisley Jr was selected by the DUP to replace him as candidate.[1] Former DUP MEP Jim Allister announced that he would contest the constituency for the Traditional Unionist Voice.[2] Paisley Jr was elected with a significantly reduced majority.
In July 2018 North Antrim was the site of the first recall petition UK held in the under the provisions of the Recall of MPs Act 2015. This petition was launched following a critical report into Paisley Jr's conduct in respect to an undeclared trip to Sri Lanka, and Paisley Jr subsequently being suspended from the Commons for 30days. The petition was signed by 9.4% of the electorate, short of the 10% required to unseat Paisley Jr and trigger a by-election.
Members of Parliament
The Member of Parliament since the 2024 general election is Jim Allister of the TUV, after the DUP lost the seat for the first time since gaining it in 1970 as the Protestant Unionist Party.
North Antrim has had comparatively few MPs in its lifetime compared to other parliamentary constituencies. Sir Hugh O'Neill had sat for one of the predecessor seats of Mid Antrim between 1915 and 1922 and Antrim between 1922 until 1950, making this one of the few seats where four individuals between them represented the seat continuously over a period of ninety years.
This was the first time the TUV gained a UK Parliament seat, as well as the first time in over 50 years the DUP lost the seat, since Ian Paisley gained it in 1970 as the Protestant Unionist Party candidate.
James Hugh Allister is a Northern Irish politician and barrister who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for North Antrim since the 2024 general election. He founded the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) in 2007 and has led the party since its formation. Prior to his election to Westminster, Allister was a member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for North Antrim, having been first elected in the 2011 Assembly election.
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.
East Antrim is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. It is currently represented by Sammy Wilson of the Democratic Unionist Party.
South Antrim is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is Robin Swann of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), first elected in the 2024 general election.
Belfast North is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is John Finucane.
Upper Bann is a parliamentary constituency in Northern Ireland, which is represented in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is Carla Lockhart of the Democratic Unionist Party.
Lagan Valley is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons.
Strangford is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons.
Larne Borough Council was a Local Council in County Antrim in Northern Ireland. It merged with Ballymena Borough Council and Carrickfergus Borough Council in May 2015 under the reorganisation of local government in Northern Ireland to become Mid and East Antrim Borough Council.
North Antrim was a constituency of the Northern Ireland House of Commons.
Mid Antrim was a UK Parliament constituency in Ireland and after 1921 Northern Ireland which returned one Member of Parliament from 1885 to 1922, using the first past the post electoral system.
Robert Mervyn Storey, usually known as Mervyn Storey, is a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician, serving as a Causeway Coast and Glens Councillor for the Ballymoney DEA since 2022. Storey previously served in the Northern Ireland Executive, where he was Minister for Social Development from 2014 to 2016, and then Minister for Finance between January and March 2016. He was a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for North Antrim from 2003 to 2022.
Jack McKee was a Northern Irish unionist politician who served as a Larne Borough Councillor for the Larne Area C DEA from 1973 to 1985, and then for Larne Town from 1985 to 2014.
The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. In common with all other Northern Irish unionist parties, the TUV's political programme has as its sine qua non the preservation of Northern Ireland's place within the United Kingdom. A founding precept of the party is that "nothing which is morally wrong can be politically right".
Ballymena Borough Council was the local authority of Ballymena in Northern Ireland. It merged with Carrickfergus Borough Council and Larne Borough Council in May 2015 under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland to become Mid and East Antrim Borough Council.
Oliver McMullan is an Irish Sinn Féin politician, serving as a Causeway Coast and Glens councillor for The Glens DEA since 2019. He was a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for East Antrim from 2011 to 2017. He was also a Larne Borough Councillor, between May and November 2011.
The first election to Mid and East Antrim District Council, part of the Northern Ireland local elections on 22 May 2014, returned 40 members to the newly formed council via Single Transferable Vote. The Democratic Unionist Party were the largest party in both first-preference votes and seats.
The North Antrim recall petition was a 2018 recall petition for the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of North Antrim, in Northern Ireland, the first since the procedure was introduced by the Recall of MPs Act 2015. It was triggered when North Antrim's MP, Ian Paisley Jr, was suspended from the House of Commons for 30 days for advocating for Sri Lanka after failing to declare that its government had paid for his visits there. In the prescribed six-week period, 9.4% of the registered electorate signed the petition, short of the 10% required to unseat Paisley and force a by-election.
The 2024 general election in Northern Ireland was held on 4 July 2024, with all 18 Northern Irish seats in the House of Commons contested. The general election occurred after the recently completed constituency boundaries review.
Timothy Gaston is a Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) politician, serving as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for North Antrim since July 2024.
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