East Londonderry (UK Parliament constituency)
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East Londonderry is a Parliamentary Constituency in the House of Commons and also an Assembly constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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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. Since further revisions in 1995 (when it lost parts of the district of Magherafelt to the Mid Ulster constituency) it now covers exactly the same area as the districts of Coleraine and Limavady.
Proposed Boundary changes
At the time of writing the Boundary Commission has published provisional recommendations for modifying the boundaries of constituencies in Northern Ireland. For East Londonderry, it proposes to transfer two rural wards in Derry district from the Foyle constituency. However the proposals are likely to come under public scrutiny and it is possible that arguments will be successfully made for maintaining co-terminous boundaries with local government districts.
Westminster elections
Member 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.
Election results
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Assembly and Forum elections
The six MLAs for the constituency elected in the 2003 election are:
- Francis Brolly - Sinn Fein
- Gregory Campbell - Democratic Unionist Party
- John Dallat - Social Democratic and Labour Party
- David McClarty - Ulster Unionist Party
- George Robinson - Democratic Unionist Party
- Norman Hillis - Ulster Unionist Party
In the 1998 election the six MLAs elected were:
- Pauline Armitage- Ulster Unionist Party
- Gregory Campbell - Democratic Unionist Party
- John Dallat - Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Boyd Douglas - Independent Unionist
- Arthur Doherty - Social Democratic and Labour Party
- David McClarty - Ulster Unionist Party
- Boyd Douglas joined with other independent Unionists to form the United Unionist Coalition on September 14 1998.
- Arthur Doherty resigned from the Assembly on September 1 2002 and was replaced by Michael Coyle, also SDLP.
- Pauline Armitage resigned the UUP whip on November 9 2001 following her failure to support David Trimble in a vote to re-elect him as First Minister of Northern Ireland. She subsequently sat as an independent unionist and unsucessfully defended her seat in the 2003 election as a candidate of the UK Unionist Party.
In the 1996 election to the Northern Ireland Peace Forum, 5 Forum members were elected from East Londonderry. They were as follows:
- Robert Bolton - Democratic Unionist Party
- David Brewster- Ulster Unionist Party
- Arthur Doherty - Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Robert Stewart - Democratic Unionist Party
- Robert White- Ulster Unionist Party
Politics and History of the constituency
For the history of the equivalent constituency prior to 1983, please see Londonderry (constituency).
The constituency is overwhelming unionist, though in many elections nationalists have polled close to 33% of the vote. The main interest in elections has 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 vote finally overtook them.
The 2001 election was seen at a province wide level as a battle over the Good Friday Agreement with the DUP opposed to it and the UUP generally in favour, however ironically this situation was seemingly reversed in East Londonderry, where 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!