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EspañolBELFAST SOUTH (UK PARLIAMENT CONSTITUENCY)
:''For other constituencies of the same name, see Belfast South.''
'Belfast South' is a Parliamentary Constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons.
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 south section of Belfast and also contains part of the district of Castlereagh.
At the time of writing the Boundary Commission has proposed alterations for the boundaries of constituencies in Northern Ireland. Belfast South currently has one of the smallest electorates of any constituency in Northern Ireland. Some have suggested abolishing the seat and cutting Belfast down to three constituencies, but others have argued that the geography and natural ties in Belfast make this unwieldy. The Boundary Commission proposals eschew this suggestion and instead propose to expand Belfast South further into Castlereagh, taking in areas currently contained in both Strangford and Belfast East.
The four wards which the Boundary Commission have proposed to add to the constituency from Castlereagh have almost exactly the same composition in terms of community background as the existing constituency.
At the boundary commission local enquiry which took place in September 2005 the proposal to add the wards of Cregagh and Wynchurch to South Belfast proved hugely controversial, being strongly opposed by the DUP but supported by the Ulster Unionists. It was also one of the issues which generated the most negative comments in the written submissions with a petition representing half of Cregagh's residents opposing its move for example.
Alliance put forth two proposals: one for a three seat Belfast which would abolish this seat and a four seat solution in which Hillfoot and Moneyreagh would join South Belfast instead of Cregagh/Wynchurch. They were supported on the latter issue by the DUP. SDLP&Sinn Féin were generally supportive of the commissions proposals, although Sinn Féin in their written representation suggested moving Ballymaccarrett ward from East to South Belfast.
Following the local enquiries, the Boundary Commission proposed retaining the Cregagh ward in East Belfast while transferring instead the Hillfoot ward. These proposals are likely to be final.
Belfast South, centred on the River Lagan contains some of Belfast's most exclusive residential districts as well as Queen's University Belfast, and the overall tenor of the constituency is middle-class - young, trendy and cosmopolitan towards the city centre, with Northern Ireland's biggest concentrations of both students and ethnic minorities, and settled and prosperous further out. Despite this, significant pockets of inner-city deprivation and a number of isolated suburban estates are in the constituency.
There has been particularly rapid demographic change in Belfast South over the past 20 years, change which seems to be continuing rapidly.
Belfast South has a unionist majority though the nationalist vote is considerable. There have also been strong votes for other parties such as the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, the Conservatives and the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition. The seat has also seen a steady series of candidates backed by groups who aspire to support the British Labour Party despite its prior ban on membership and organisation in Northern Ireland, though their results have been minimal. Since its inception the main focus of attention has been on contests between unionist candidates.
In the February 1974 general election the seat was won by Robert Bradford of the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party on a united anti-Sunningdale Agreement slate with the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party. He defeated Rafton Pounder, the sitting Unionist MP who defended his seat as a Pro-Assembly Unionist. Bradford held the seat for the next seven years, though in (1977) he and the rump of Vanguard reunited with the Ulster Unionists. At the end of 1981 Bradford was assassinated by the IRA in a Belfast community centre while hosting a political surgery.
The subsequent by-election garnered much interest as it was expected that the Democratic Unionist Party would take the seat, building on their steady rise which had seen them gain both Belfast North and Belfast East at the previous general election. However in the event the DUP came third, behind the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland and the UUP's candidate, Martin Smyth won the seat, holding it until 2005. The by-election was extremely significant at the time in that it was the first at which the DUP tide ebbed.
In the 2001 general election less than 50% of voters voted for unionist parties for the first time in its history, but this has been attributed to a collapse in the vote for the small Progressive Unionist Party as well as to Smyth's fierce opposition to the Good Friday Agreement which is estimated to have sent many pro-Agreement unionist voters to vote tactically for the Social Democratic and Labour Party.
In January 2005 Smyth announced that he would be retiring at the forthcoming general election, raising speculation both as to whom the Ulster Unionists would field in succession to him and what effect a different candidate will have upon their share of the vote. The UUP selected Assembly member Michael McGimpsey, albeit with a highly controversial and bitter selection. The aftermath saw McGimpsey repudiated by many prominent local and national Ulster Unionists, including both Smyth and former UUP leader James Molyneaux. The DUP selected Jimmy Spratt and offered an electoral pact to the UUP that would give each party a free run at one out of South Belfast and Fermanagh and South Tyrone. This offer was rejected by the UUP.
In the event, the DUP and UUP both fielded candidates which split the vote, while the nationalist vote mainly went for the SDLP over Sinn Féin, with the result that the SDLP took the seat despite a majority of votes cast for unionist candidates.
The Member of Parliament since the 2005 general election is Alasdair McDonnell of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. He succeeded the Rev Martin Smyth of the Ulster Unionist Party, who had sat for the seat from a by-election in 1982 until retiring at the 2005 election.
1Even though Progressive Unionist candidates opposed UUP candidates in elections, Stewart continued to take the Conservative and Unionist whip at Westminster.
''Note:'' The by-election was caused by the decision of all Unionist MPs to resign their seats and seek re-election on a platform of opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
:In the 1931 and 1935 UK general elections, William Stewart was elected unopposed.
:In the 1922, 1923 and 1924 UK general elections, Thomas Moles was elected unopposed.
★ 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)
★ List of Parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland
'Belfast South' 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 south section of Belfast and also contains part of the district of Castlereagh.
Proposed boundary changes
At the time of writing the Boundary Commission has proposed alterations for the boundaries of constituencies in Northern Ireland. Belfast South currently has one of the smallest electorates of any constituency in Northern Ireland. Some have suggested abolishing the seat and cutting Belfast down to three constituencies, but others have argued that the geography and natural ties in Belfast make this unwieldy. The Boundary Commission proposals eschew this suggestion and instead propose to expand Belfast South further into Castlereagh, taking in areas currently contained in both Strangford and Belfast East.
The four wards which the Boundary Commission have proposed to add to the constituency from Castlereagh have almost exactly the same composition in terms of community background as the existing constituency.
At the boundary commission local enquiry which took place in September 2005 the proposal to add the wards of Cregagh and Wynchurch to South Belfast proved hugely controversial, being strongly opposed by the DUP but supported by the Ulster Unionists. It was also one of the issues which generated the most negative comments in the written submissions with a petition representing half of Cregagh's residents opposing its move for example.
Alliance put forth two proposals: one for a three seat Belfast which would abolish this seat and a four seat solution in which Hillfoot and Moneyreagh would join South Belfast instead of Cregagh/Wynchurch. They were supported on the latter issue by the DUP. SDLP&Sinn Féin were generally supportive of the commissions proposals, although Sinn Féin in their written representation suggested moving Ballymaccarrett ward from East to South Belfast.
Following the local enquiries, the Boundary Commission proposed retaining the Cregagh ward in East Belfast while transferring instead the Hillfoot ward. These proposals are likely to be final.
History
Belfast South, centred on the River Lagan contains some of Belfast's most exclusive residential districts as well as Queen's University Belfast, and the overall tenor of the constituency is middle-class - young, trendy and cosmopolitan towards the city centre, with Northern Ireland's biggest concentrations of both students and ethnic minorities, and settled and prosperous further out. Despite this, significant pockets of inner-city deprivation and a number of isolated suburban estates are in the constituency.
There has been particularly rapid demographic change in Belfast South over the past 20 years, change which seems to be continuing rapidly.
Belfast South has a unionist majority though the nationalist vote is considerable. There have also been strong votes for other parties such as the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, the Conservatives and the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition. The seat has also seen a steady series of candidates backed by groups who aspire to support the British Labour Party despite its prior ban on membership and organisation in Northern Ireland, though their results have been minimal. Since its inception the main focus of attention has been on contests between unionist candidates.
In the February 1974 general election the seat was won by Robert Bradford of the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party on a united anti-Sunningdale Agreement slate with the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party. He defeated Rafton Pounder, the sitting Unionist MP who defended his seat as a Pro-Assembly Unionist. Bradford held the seat for the next seven years, though in (1977) he and the rump of Vanguard reunited with the Ulster Unionists. At the end of 1981 Bradford was assassinated by the IRA in a Belfast community centre while hosting a political surgery.
The subsequent by-election garnered much interest as it was expected that the Democratic Unionist Party would take the seat, building on their steady rise which had seen them gain both Belfast North and Belfast East at the previous general election. However in the event the DUP came third, behind the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland and the UUP's candidate, Martin Smyth won the seat, holding it until 2005. The by-election was extremely significant at the time in that it was the first at which the DUP tide ebbed.
In the 2001 general election less than 50% of voters voted for unionist parties for the first time in its history, but this has been attributed to a collapse in the vote for the small Progressive Unionist Party as well as to Smyth's fierce opposition to the Good Friday Agreement which is estimated to have sent many pro-Agreement unionist voters to vote tactically for the Social Democratic and Labour Party.
In January 2005 Smyth announced that he would be retiring at the forthcoming general election, raising speculation both as to whom the Ulster Unionists would field in succession to him and what effect a different candidate will have upon their share of the vote. The UUP selected Assembly member Michael McGimpsey, albeit with a highly controversial and bitter selection. The aftermath saw McGimpsey repudiated by many prominent local and national Ulster Unionists, including both Smyth and former UUP leader James Molyneaux. The DUP selected Jimmy Spratt and offered an electoral pact to the UUP that would give each party a free run at one out of South Belfast and Fermanagh and South Tyrone. This offer was rejected by the UUP.
In the event, the DUP and UUP both fielded candidates which split the vote, while the nationalist vote mainly went for the SDLP over Sinn Féin, with the result that the SDLP took the seat despite a majority of votes cast for unionist candidates.
Members of Parliament
The Member of Parliament since the 2005 general election is Alasdair McDonnell of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. He succeeded the Rev Martin Smyth of the Ulster Unionist Party, who had sat for the seat from a by-election in 1982 until retiring at the 2005 election.
| Year | Member | Party |
|---|---|---|
| 1885 | William Johnston | Conservative |
| 1902 | Thomas Henry Sloan | Independent Unionist |
| 1910 | James Chambers | Ulster Unionist |
| 1917 | William Arthur Lindsay | Ulster Unionist |
| ''Abolished 1918; revived 1922'' | ||
| 1922 | Thomas Moles | Ulster Unionist |
| 1929 | William John Stewart | Ulster Unionist 1929 - 1945 Progressive Unionist 1938 - 19451 |
| 1945 | Connolly Gage | Ulster Unionist |
| 1952 | Sir David Campbell | Ulster Unionist |
| 1963 | Rafton Pounder | Ulster Unionist |
| 1974 | Robert Bradford | Vanguard Progressive Unionist 1974 - 1977 Ulster Unionist 1977 - 1982 |
| 1982 | Martin Smyth | Ulster Unionist |
| 2005 | Alasdair McDonnell | Social Democratic and Labour |
1Even though Progressive Unionist candidates opposed UUP candidates in elections, Stewart continued to take the Conservative and Unionist whip at Westminster.
Election results
Elections in the 2000s
Elections in the 1990s
Elections in the 1980s
''Note:'' The by-election was caused by the decision of all Unionist MPs to resign their seats and seek re-election on a platform of opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
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, William Stewart was elected unopposed.
Elections in the 1920s
:In the 1922, 1923 and 1924 UK general elections, Thomas Moles 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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