Created 1983 | Electorate 65,233 (March 2011) Number of members 1 | |
 | ||
Replaced by Londonderry, Mid Ulster, North Antrim | ||
East Londonderry, (sometimes called East Derry) is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons.
Contents
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. From further revisions in 1995 (when it lost parts of the district of Magherafelt to the Mid Ulster constituency), and until the 2008 revision, it covered exactly the same area as the districts of Coleraine and Limavady. The inclusion of all of Coleraine Borough means that part of the East Londonderry constituency is actually in County Antrim.
For the 2010 general election the East Londonderry constituency was formed by the following local government areas, as confirmed by the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Constituencies Order.
History
The constituency has a unionist majority, though in many elections nationalists have polled close to 35% 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 finally overtook them.
The 2001 election was seen at a province wide level as a battle over the Belfast Agreement with the DUP opposed to it and most of the UUP 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.
For the history of the equivalent constituency prior to 1983, please see Londonderry.
Members 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.
Elections in the 1990s
1997 changes are compared to the notional figures from 1992.