East Londonderry (UK Parliament constituency)

Constituency profile

This is a mostly rural constituency stretching from the hill country of the Sperrin Mountains in the south to the Atlantic coast in the north; and from the suburbs of Derry city in the west to the River Bann in the east. The constituency's two main towns are Limavady and Coleraine; other urban areas include the upland town of Dungiven; and the coastal resorts of Portstewart and Portrush (the latter in fact lies in Country Antrim).

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, minus the area around the city of Derry itself which formed the new Foyle 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.

• The entire local government districts of Limavady and Coleraine.
• Banagher, and Claudy, from the Londonderry district.

Prior to the 2024 general election, the following additions were made to the East Londonderry constituency:

• The entire ward of Eglinton is transferred from Foyle.
• The entire ward of Claudy, which was split between Foyle and East Londonderry, is assigned to East Londonderry.

History

The constituency has a Unionist plurality although, in many elections, nationalists have polled 40% of the vote, and the middle-of-the-road Alliance Party sometimes above 10%. Until the 2010 election the main interest in elections had 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, that situation was seemingly reversed in East Londonderry, in which 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.

In the 2016 EU referendum 21,098 people in the constituency voted to remain in the European Union, 19,455 voted to leave, and 10 votes were rejected.

Unionist candidates failed to get a majority of the votes for the first time at the 2019 election, although they secured a plurality of votes. The seat had a considerable swing to Sinn Féin in the 2024 general election of over 12%, but the DUP retained the constituency, albeit with a very narrow majority of 179 votes.

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

Elections in the 2020s

Elections in the 2010s

|reg. electors = 69,194 |reg. electors = 67,038 |reg. electors = 66,926 |reg. electors = 63,220

Elections in the 2000s

|reg. electors = 58,461 |reg. electors = 60,215

Elections in the 1990s

|reg. electors = 58,938 1997 changes are compared to the notional figures from 1992. |reg. electors = N/A |reg. electors = 75,587

Elections in the 1980s

|reg. electors = 71,031 |reg. electors = 70,038 |reg. electors = 67,306

Demographics

On Census day 2021 there were 103,285 people living in the East Londonderry parliamentary constituency. Of these:

• 42.5% (43,869) belong to or were brought up in the Catholic Christian faith and 48.7% (50,342) belong to or were brought up in various 'Protestant and Other Christian (including Christian related)' denominations. 0.8% (871) belong to other religions and 7.9% (8,203) had no religious background.
• 36.6% (37,829) indicated that they had a British only identity, 22.9% (23,639) had an Irish only identity and 23.3% (24,083) had a Northern Irish only identity (respondents could indicate more than one national identity).

References

References

1. "'Londonderry East', June 1983 up to May 1997". Cognitive Computing Limited.
2. "The Parliamentary Constituencies (Northern Ireland) Order 2008". legislation.gov.uk.
3. (2023-07-02). "Boundary Commission publish their 2023 Review of Parliamentary Consitutencies – Northern Ireland Elects".
4. (23 June 2023). "Final Recommendations Report of the 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituencies.PDF".
5. {{Rayment-hc. l. 4. (March 2012)
6. (2024-06-07). "Statement of Persons Nominated and Notice of Poll".
7. "East Londonderry Parliamentary constituency". BBC News.
8. (11 May 2017). "Election of a Member of Parliament for the EAST LONDONDERRY Constituency – Statement of Persons Nominated and Notice of Poll". Electoral Office of Northern Ireland.
9. "UK Parliamentary Election Result 2017 – East Londonderry".
10. "Election Data 2015". [[Electoral Calculus]].
11. "The Electoral Office of Northern Ireland – EONI".
12. (23 February 2015). "Cllr William McCandless selected as Ulster Unionist Westminster candidate for East Londonderry". Ulster Unionist Party.
13. "Election Data 2010". [[Electoral Calculus]].
14. "Election Data 2005". [[Electoral Calculus]].
15. "Election Data 2001". [[Electoral Calculus]].
16. "Election Data 1997". [[Electoral Calculus]].
17. (1997). "BBC Election '97". BBC.
18. "Election Data 1992". [[Electoral Calculus]].
19. "Election Data 1987". [[Electoral Calculus]].
20. "By-election Result".
21. Nicholas Whyte. (13 May 2003). "Westminster by-elections, 23 January 1986". [[Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive]].
22. "Election Data 1983". [[Electoral Calculus]].
23. "Parliamentary Constituency 2024".
24. "National identity (person based) – basic detail (classification 1)".