2017 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland

2017 United Kingdom general election (Northern Ireland)

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All 18 seats in Northern Ireland to the House of Commons
Turnout	65.6% ()
First party Second party Third party   Leader Arlene Foster Gerry Adams Colum Eastwood Party DUP Sinn Féin SDLP Leader since 17 December 2015 13 November 1983 14 November 2015 Leader's seat Did not stand Did not stand Did not stand Last election 8 seats, 25.7% 4 seats, 24.5% 3 seats, 13.9% Seats won 10 7 0 Seat change 2 3 3 Popular vote 292,316 238,915 95,419 Percentage 36.0% 29.4% 11.7% Swing 10.3% 4.9% 2.2%   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Robin Swann Naomi Long Party UUP Alliance Percentage 10.3% 7.9%
Colours on map indicate winning party for each constituency

The 2017 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 8 June 2017. All 18 seats in Northern Ireland were contested. 1,242,698 people were eligible to vote, up 5,933 from the 2015 general election. 65.6% of eligible voters turned out, an increase of 7.2 percentage points from the last general election.^[1]

The DUP gained 2 seats for a total of 10, and Sinn Féin won 7, an improvement of 3. Independent unionist Sylvia Hermon was also re-elected in her constituency of North Down. Meanwhile, the SDLP lost 3 seats and the UUP lost 2 seats, meaning they both lost all their representation in the House of Commons.

As Sinn Féin maintains a policy of abstentionism in regards to the British Parliament, the 2017 election marked the first parliament since 1964 without any Irish nationalist MPs who take their seats in the House of Commons in Westminster.

Nationally, the governing Conservative Party fell 8 seats short of a parliamentary majority after the election, reduced to 4 if the absence of Sinn Féin is taken into account. The DUP thus held the balance of power, and announced on 10 June that it would support the Conservative government on a "confidence and supply" basis.^[2] (See also Conservative–DUP agreement.)

Results

Five seats changed hands in Northern Ireland. The SDLP lost its seats in Foyle and South Down to Sinn Féin and the constituency of Belfast South to the DUP. Meanwhile, the UUP lost South Antrim to the DUP and Fermanagh and South Tyrone to Sinn Féin. The number of unionist and nationalist representatives (11 and 7, respectively) remained unchanged from the 2015 general election, although none of the nationalist members participated in the Parliament.

Vote summary

References

This page was last edited on 8 January 2024, at 15:51