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12 seats in Northern Ireland of the 635 seats in the House of Commons | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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 was the second general election to take place in 1974, as Harold Wilson who was leading a minority government sought to secure a majority for the Labour Party. He was successful, but only by a very narrow margin, which dissipated over the course of the parliament.
In Northern Ireland, the United Ulster Unionist Council continued to support an arrangement between the Ulster Unionist Party, the Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party and the Democratic Unionist Party not to contest against each other in their joint opposition to the Sunningdale Agreement, while former Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Brian Faulkner led the new Unionist Party of Northern Ireland in favour of a coalition-based executive under the Agreement. Enoch Powell, formerly an MP for Wolverhampton South West from 1959 to February 1974, was elected for Down South. Powell had left the Conservative Party in opposition to the accession of the United Kingdom to the European Communities.
On the nationalist side, the SDLP held its seat in Belfast West, and stood aside in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, allowing for the defeat of UUP leader Harry West by Independent Nationalist Frank Maguire.
| Party | MPs | Votes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Change | No. | % | Change | ||
| UUP | 6 |  1 | 256,053 | 36.5% |  4.2 | |
| Vanguard | 3 |  | 92,622 | 13.1% | 2.5 | |
| SDLP | 1 | 1 | 154,193 | 22.4% | | |
| DUP | 1 | | 59,451 | 8.5% | 0.3 | |
| Ind. Nationalist | 1 | 1 | 32,795 | 4.7% | 4.7 | |
| Alliance | 0 | | 44,644 | 6.4% | 3.2 | |
| Republican Clubs | 0 | | 21,633 | 3.1% | 1.0 | |
| Unionist Party NI | 0 | | 20,454 | 3.1% | 10.0 [a 1] | |
| NI Labour | 0 | | 11,539 | 1.6% | 0.6 | |
| Ind. Unionist | 0 | | 4,982 | 0.7% | 0.7 | |
| Marxist–Leninist | 0 | | 540 | 0.1% | 0.1 | |
| Independent | 0 | | 3536 | 0.5% | 3.1 | |
| Total | 12 | | 703,042 | 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.
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 Northern Ireland Assembly, often referred to by the metonym Stormont, is the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and to appoint the Northern Ireland Executive. It sits at Parliament Buildings at Stormont in Belfast.
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.
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.
South Down is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is Chris Hazzard of Sinn Féin.
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.
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 United Ulster Unionist Council was a body that sought to bring together the Unionists opposed to the Sunningdale Agreement in 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 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 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 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on 12 December 2019 to elect all 650 members of the House of Commons, including 18 seats in Northern Ireland. 1,293,971 people were eligible to vote, up 51,273 from the 2017 general election. 62.09% of eligible voters turned out, down 3.5 percentage points from the last general election. For the first time in history, nationalist parties won more seats than unionist parties.
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