List_of_Parliamentary_constituencies_in_Northern_Ireland

List of parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland

List of parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland

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Northern Ireland is divided into 18 parliamentary constituencies: 4 borough constituencies in Belfast and 14 county constituencies elsewhere. Section 33 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 provides that the constituencies for the Northern Ireland Assembly are the same as the constituencies that are used for the United Kingdom Parliament.[1] Parliamentary constituencies are not used for local government, which is instead carried out by 11 district councils; these often have different boundaries.

Constituencies

Each constituency returns one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons at Westminster and five Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) to the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont. Six MLAs were returned per constituency until the Assembly Members (Reduction of Numbers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 reduced the number to five, effective from the 2017 Assembly election.[2]

2019 general election

  Democratic Unionist   Sinn Féin   Social Democratic and Labour   Ulster Unionist   Alliance Party

More information Name, Electorate ...
  1. BC denotes borough constituency, CC denotes county constituency.
  2. The majority is the number of votes the winning candidate receives more than their nearest rival.

Data from the BBC Election Website. For full official results see the Electoral Office of Northern Ireland.

Historical representation by party

Where a cell is marked → (with a different colour of frame to the preceding cell) it indicates that the previous MP continued to sit under a new party affiliation. Changes are dated in the header row: either a general election (four-figure year, bold, link) or by-election or change in affiliation (two-figure year, italic, link or details appear on hover).

1801 to 1832 (22 MPs)

Antrim

  Tory   Whig

Londonderry

  Tory   Whig

More information Constituency ...

* Sir George Hill, 2nd Baronet, was elected to sit as MP for both Coleraine and Londonderry City in the 1806 general election and chose to continue to sit for Londonderry City, hence the 1807 by-election, in which Walter Jones was restored to his seat.

Tyrone

  Tory   Whig   Independent

* At both the 1802 and 1806 elections, George Knox was returned for both Dungannon and Dublin University and chose to sit for the university seat.

Armagh

  Tory   Whig

* Charles Brownlow was initially elected as a Tory but at some point changed his affiliation to sit with the Whigs.

Down

  Tory   Whig

More information Constituency ...

* The Parliaments of England by Henry Stooks Smith suggests that after the 1806 election there was a petition, which led to Edward Southwell Ruthven (Whig) being unseated and John Wilson Croker (Tory) being declared duly elected. Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922, edited by BM Walker, does not make any reference to such a petition.

Fermanagh

  Tory

1832 to 1885 (29 MPs)

Antrim

  Conservative   Whig   Peelite   Liberal

More information Constituency ...

Londonderry

  Conservative   Whig   Liberal

*unseated on petition

Tyrone

  Conservative   Peelite   Liberal

More information Constituency ...

Armagh

  Conservative   Whig   Peelite   Liberal

More information Constituency ...

Down

  Conservative   Whig   Peelite   Liberal

Fermanagh

  Conservative

More information Constituency ...

1885 to 1918 (25 MPs)

Antrim

   Conservative Party    Irish Unionist    Russellite Unionist    Independent Unionist

Armagh

   Conservative Party    Irish Unionist    Irish Parliamentary Party (1885-90, 1900-22) / Irish National League (1890-1900)    Irish National Federation    Healyite Nationalist    Nationalist Party

Belfast

   Conservative Party    Irish Unionist    Independent Unionist    Liberal Unionist    Irish Parliamentary Party (1885-90, 1900-22) / Irish National League (1890-1900)    Irish National Federation    Nationalist Party    Labour Unionist

Down

   Conservative Party    Irish Unionist    Russellite Unionist    Irish Parliamentary Party (1885-90, 1900-22) / Irish National League (1890-1900)    Irish National Federation    Nationalist Party

Fermanagh

   Irish Unionist    Russellite Unionist    Irish Parliamentary Party (1885-90, 1900-22) / Irish National League (1890-1900)    Irish National Federation

Londonderry

   Conservative Party    Irish Unionist    Liberal Unionist    Liberal Party    Irish Parliamentary Party (1885-90, 1900-22) / Irish National League (1890-1900)    Irish National Federation

Tyrone

   Conservative Party    Irish Unionist    Russellite Unionist    Liberal Unionist    Liberal Party    Irish Parliamentary Party (1885-90, 1900-22) / Irish National League (1890-1900)    Irish National Federation    Nationalist Party

1918 to 1922 (30 MPs)

   Irish Unionist    Independent Unionist    Labour Unionist    Sinn Féin

1922 to 1950 (13 MPs)

  Ulster Unionist   Ulster Progressive Unionist   Independent Unionist   New Party   Northern Ireland Labour   Independent Labour   Federation of Labour   Irish Labour   Nationalist Party

1950 to 1983 (12 MPs)

Periodic boundary reviews commenced in 1947.[4][5] The elections at which these were implemented are tagged with diamond suit characters, ♦.

The 1st Periodic Review boundary map can be viewed on the ARK elections website. Changes in the 2nd review were relatively minor.[6]

More information Unionist parties, Nationalist parties ...

Notes:

  1. The constituency was won by Philip Clarke of Sinn Féin, but he was unseated on petition on the basis that his criminal conviction (for Irish Republican Army activity) made him ineligible. Instead, the seat was awarded to the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) candidate.
  2. The seat was originally won by Tom Mitchell of Sinn Féin, but Mitchell was subsequently unseated upon petition, on the grounds that his terrorist convictions made him ineligible to sit in Parliament. The seat was awarded to Charles Beattie of the UUP. However, Beattie in turn was also found ineligible to sit due to holding an office of profit under the crown, triggering a further by-election.
  3. Original winner of the 1950 election in that seat, James Godfrey MacManaway (UUP), disqualified due to being a clergyman. Teevan won the subsequent by-election

1983 to present (17, then 18 MPs)

3rd and 4th Review boundary maps can be viewed on the ARK elections website: 1983, 1997.

  Democratic Unionist   Sinn Féin   Social Democratic and Labour   Ulster Unionist   Alliance Party   Independent   Ulster Popular Unionist   UK Unionist Party

1Paisley Jr was suspended from the DUP between July and November 2018.

Seats by political alignment (1983–present)

Boundary changes

See 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies for further details.

Following the abandonment of the Sixth Periodic Review (the 2018 review), the Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland formally launched the 2023 Review on 5 January 2021. In accordance with the provisions of the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020, the number of constituencies allocated to Northern Ireland was unchanged, at 18.[7] Initial proposals were published on 20 October 2021 and, following two periods of public consultation, revised proposals were published on 17 November 2022. Final recommendations were published on 28 June 2023.[8]

Under the recommendations, the following constituencies for Northern Ireland would come into effect at the next general election:[9]

More information Constituency, Electorate ...

See also


References

  1. "FAQs". Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland. Archived from the original on 1 April 2014. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  2. "Commons Briefing Paper 7979. General Election 2017: results and analysis" (PDF) (Second ed.). House of Commons Library. 29 January 2019 [7 April 2018]. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2019.
  3. Uberoi, Elise; White, Isobel (25 February 2016). "Constituency boundary reviews and the number of MPs".
  4. Whyte, Dr Nicholas. "Westminster election February 1974". www.ark.ac.uk. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  5. "Guide to the 2023 Review". Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland. 27 May 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
  6. "Final Recommendations Report of the 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituencies - PDF". Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland. 28 June 2023. pp. 97–114. Retrieved 30 June 2023.

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