Districts of Northern Ireland Derry City Council Created 1983 Member of parliament Mark Durkan Replaced by Londonderry, Mid Ulster | Electorate 68,565 (March 2011) European Parliament constituency Northern Ireland Number of members 1 | |
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Created from Londonderry and Mid Ulster | ||
Foyle is a parliamentary constituency in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. It has been represented since 2005 by Mark Durkan, of the Social Democratic and Labour Party.
Contents
Boundaries
1983-1997: The District of Londonderry, and the District of Strabane wards of Artigarvan, Dunnamanagh, East, North, Slievekirk, South, and West.
1997-2010: The District of Derry.
2010-present: The District of Derry wards of Altnagelvin, Ballynashallog, Beechwood, Brandywell, Carn Hill, Caw, Clondermot, Creggan Central, Creggan South, Crevagh, Culmore, Ebrington, Eglinton, Enagh, Foyle Springs, Holly Mount, Kilfennan, Lisnagelvin, New Buildings, Pennyburn, Rosemount, Shantallow East, Shantallow West, Springtown, Strand, The Diamond, Victoria, and Westland.
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 Strabane to the West Tyrone constituency), and until the 2008 revision, it covered exactly the same area as Derry city.
The name comes from the River Foyle which the city lies on and is used to avoid the contentious names of Derry or Londonderry, as well as to cover the areas of County Tyrone that were originally in the constituency.
Prior to the 2010 general election the transfer of Claudy and Banagher wards to East Londonderry were approved through the passing of the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Constituencies Order in 2008.
History
For the history of the equivalent constituency prior to 1983, see Londonderry.
The constituency is overwhelmingly nationalist and in many elections has often had the strongest vote for the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in the whole of Northern Ireland.
There had been much speculation that with the gradual retirement of John Hume from politics, the SDLP vote might collapse. In the 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election, the SDLP lost 11.5% of the vote and were only narrowly ahead of Sinn Féin. Hume's retirement led to many questioning whether Mark Durkan, Hume's successor as leader, could hold on to the seat. However in the 2005 general election he did so. The decline in the Unionist vote suggests that some Unionist voters tactically voted for Durkan.
Durkan retained the seat in 2010. This seat also gave the Alliance Party their worst share of the vote in Northern Ireland, polling just 0.6% of the votes.
Durkan was re-elected to a third term in 2015, increasing his share of the vote to 47.9% and winning a majority of 6046 votes.
Members of Parliament
The Member of Parliament since the 2005 general election is Mark Durkan of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. He succeeded John Hume, also of the SDLP, who had represented the seat since its creation for the 1983 general election.