:''For other constituencies of the same name, see
Belfast North.''
'Belfast North' is a
Parliamentary Constituency in the
United Kingdom House of Commons.
Boundaries
The seat was created in
1922 when, as part of the establishment of the devolved
Stormont Parliament for Northern Ireland, the number of MPs in the
Westminster Parliament was drastically cut. The seat is centred on the north section of
Belfast, though at times the area around the Docks on the north side of the Lagan Estuary has instead been part of variously
Belfast East and
Belfast West. Belfast North also contains part of the district of
Newtownabbey.
Belfast North contains 14 wards of
Belfast City Council and 5 of
Newtownabbey Borough Council. The constituency suffered the highest level of violence in Northern Ireland during
The Troubles and covers many areas synonymous with the conflict – the
New Lodge,
Ardoyne,
Rathcoole,
Ballysillan and
Woodvale. The overall tenor of the constituency is working-class, with a high proportion of residents in public housing, and concentrations of low-income single people in the middle Antrim Road and Cliftonville areas. There are some upscale residential areas around
Belfast Castle and on the slopes of
Cavehill.
Sectarian divisions are stark, with a number of
Peace Lines cutting through the constituency and,
as of 2005, occasional outbursts of sectarian street violence, and was the focus for ugly post-ceasefire incidents such as the
Holy Cross dispute.
Proposed boundary changes
At the time of writing the
Boundary Commission has proposed alterations for the boundaries of constituencies in Northern Ireland. Belfast North currently has one of the smallest electorates of any constituency in Northern Ireland and it is proposed to expand it further into
Newtownabbey, taking in areas currently contained in both
East Antrim and
South Antrim.
The four wards which the Boundary Commission have proposed to add to the constituency from Newtownabbey have almost exactly the same composition in terms of
community background as the existing constituency.
Not included in the proposals is a common suggestion to reunite the five wards centred on the
Shankill Road which are currently split between
Belfast West and Belfast North. At the boundary commission hearings in September 2005, the SDLP proposed extending the seat to Cloughfern and Jordanstown. The DUP supported the addition of Cloughfern option. Sinn Féin had little to say at the enquiry and were generally supportive of the commission's proposals. The issue of transferring the Crumlin and Woodvale wards to West Belfast to unite the Greater Shankill was raised by Alliance and a private individual but was vociferously opposed by the DUP led by local MP Nigel Dodds and to a lesser extent by the Ulster Unionists. Both the SDLP and Sinn Féin had little to say on the latter issue and neither opposed nor supported it.
History
Belfast North has a
unionist majority though the
nationalist vote is considerable. It has generated particular interest for a number of highly unusual elections results, as well as for several candidates and MPs prominently disagreeing with their parties.
Of the five main political parties in Northern Ireland, four (the
Ulster Unionist Party, the
Democratic Unionist Party, the
Social Democratic and Labour Party and
Sinn Féin) all have relatively strong support bases and routinely poll similar results. Other parties such as the
Alliance,
Progressive Unionist Party,
Unionist Party of Northern Ireland,
Conservatives and the
Workers' Party have at times polled significantly, as have independent candidates, with the result that many elections have been won on comparatively low shares of the vote. The elections to the various assemblies have often seen the seats for the constituency heavily split - in
1998 no party won more than one Assembly seat.
The area saw a steady out movement of
Protestants during the
Troubles, to some degree replaced by a growing
Catholic population, although the overall population of the area fell sharply. However, all the inner-city communities in the constituency are now haemorrhaging electors, and the overall ethnic composition of the constituency now seems stable.
The seat was consistently held by the
Ulster Unionist Party from its creation until the 1970s. In
1972 the first notable dissent occurred when the sitting MP,
Stratton Mills, dissented from the UUP's decision to withdraw from the
Conservative whip at Westminster over the suspension of the
Stormont Parliament. Mills remained as a Conservative MP, but the following year Mills joined the
Alliance, giving them their only Westminster representation to date.
In the
February 1974 general election the seat was won by
John Carson of the
Ulster Unionist Party with backing by the
Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party and the
Democratic Unionist Party on a united slate in opposition to the
Sunningdale Agreement. Carson's victory came despite a majority of votes being cast for pro-Sunningdale candidates, albeit split between the
Pro-Assembly Unionists, the
Social Democratic and Labour Party and the
Northern Ireland Labour Party. Carson held his seat in the
October 1974 election but was deselected by the local Ulster Unionists over his support for the minority Labour government.
The
1979 general election saw one of the most dramatic results of all when
Johnny McQuade of the
Democratic Unionist Party won the seat with a mere 27.6% of the vote - the third lowest total for a successful candidate in a UK general election in the twentieth century. This came about due to the strong showing of several other parties, dividng the vote strongly. McQuade also had the distinction of being the oldest person to be initially elected to Westminster in the 20th century and did not restand at the next general election.
In
1983,
Cecil Walker regained the seat for the UUP, beating
Scotsman George Seawright of the DUP. In the
1987 general election the UUP and DUP agreed a pact in opposition to the
Anglo Irish Agreement. Seawright had been expelled from the DUP and stood in the election, reviving the
Protestant Unionist Party label, but was unsuccessful.
Walker continued to hold the seat until
2001 but gained a reputation for inactivity. In the
2001 general election the DUP contested the seat for the first time since 1983, with their candidate
Nigel Dodds campaigning heavily on both their opposition to the
Good Friday Agreement and Walker's record. Walker also suffered from a disastrous television interview during the campaign. In the election Walker's vote collapsed to a mere 12%, coming fourth whilst Dodds won the seat. The UUP vote fell even further in both the
2003 Assembly election and the
2005 general election and it seems extremely doubtful that they will retake the seat at the next general election. Much of the attention now focuses on the growth of the
Sinn Féin vote.
Members of Parliament
The
Member of Parliament since the
2001 general election is
Nigel Dodds of the
Democratic Unionist Party. He defeated
Cecil Walker of the
Ulster Unionist Party who had sat for the seat since
1983.
'Monuments at Belfast City Hall - MP's Belfast North'
Elections
Elections in the 2000s
Elections in the 1990s
Elections in the 1980s
Elections in the 1970s
Elections in the 1960s
Elections in the 1950s
Elections in the 1940s
Elections in the 1930s
★ In the
1931 and
1935 UK general elections,
Thomas Somerset was elected unopposed.
Elections in the 1920s
:In the
1922 UK general election,
Thomas McConnell was elected unopposed.
Sources
★
BBC News, Election 2005
★
BBC News, Vote 2001
★
Guardian Unlimited Politics
★
Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
★ http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/ (Election results from 1951 to the present)
See also
★
List of Parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland
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