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Northern Ireland is divided into 18 Parliamentary constituencies - 4 borough constituencies in Belfast and 14 county constituencies elsewhere. Section 33 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 provides that the constituencies for the Northern Ireland Assembly are the same as the constituencies that are used for the United Kingdom Parliament. Parliamentary constituencies are not used for local government, which is instead carried out by 11 district councils; these often have different boundaries.
Contents
- 2015 General Election
- Historical representation by party
- 1885 to 1918
- 1918 to 1922
- 1922 to 1950
- 1950 to 1983 12 MPs
- 1983 to present 17 then 18 MPs
- Proposals made in 2016
- References
Each constituency returns one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons at Westminster and five Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) to the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont. Six MLAs were returned per constituency until the Assembly Members (Reduction of Numbers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 reduced the number to five, effective from the 2017 Assembly election.
2015 General Election
Democratic Unionist Sinn Féin Social Democratic and Labour Ulster Unionist Alliance Party Traditional Unionist Voice Independent People Before Profit
The data in this table is from the BBC Election Website.
Full official results for the 2015 General Election in Northern Ireland can be found on the website of the Electoral Office of Northern Ireland.
Historical representation by party
Where a cell is marked --> (with a different colour background to the preceding cell) it indicates that the previous MP continued to sit under a new party name.
1885 to 1918
Conservative Party Irish Unionist then Ulster Unionist Independent Unionist Russellite Unionist Liberal Unionist Liberal Party Irish Parliamentary Party Irish National Federation Healyite Nationalist
1918 to 1922
Ulster Unionist Independent Unionist Labour Unionist Nationalist Party Sinn Féin
1922 to 1950
Ulster Unionist Ulster Progressive Unionist Independent Unionist New Party Northern Ireland Labour Independent Labour Federation of Labour Irish Labour Nationalist Party
1950 to 1983 (12 MPs)
Unionist parties: Ulster Unionist Protestant Unionist (pre-1971) Democratic Unionist (post-1971) Vanguard Unionist Conservative Party Independent Unionist Ulster Popular Unionist Party
Nationalist parties: Independent Republican Unity Nationalist Party Anti H-Block (pre-1982) Sinn Féin (post-1982) Labour Party Republican Labour Social Democratic and Labour
Other: Alliance Independent
1The constituency was won by Philip Clarke of Sinn Féin, but he was unseated on petition on the basis that his criminal conviction (for Irish Republican Army activity) made him ineligible. Instead, the seat was awarded to the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) candidate.
2The seat was originally won by Tom Mitchell of Sinn Féin, but Mitchell was subsequently unseated upon petition, on the grounds that his terrorist convictions made him ineligible to sit in Parliament. The seat was awarded to Charles Beattie of the UUP. However, Beattie in turn was also found ineligible to sit due to holding an office of profit under the crown, triggering a further by-election.
3opponent disqualified
1983 to present (17, then 18 MPs)
Democratic Unionist Sinn Féin Social Democratic and Labour Ulster Unionist Alliance Party Independent Ulster Popular Unionist Party UK Unionist Party
Proposals made in 2016
As part of the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies the Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland published the following proposed constituencies to be fought at the 2020 general election.