Belfast South (UK Parliament constituency)

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For other constituencies of the same name, see Belfast South.

Belfast South Borough constituency
Belfast South shown within Northern Ireland
Created:	1885, 1922
MP:	Alasdair McDonnell
Party:	Social Democratic and Labour
Type:	House of Commons
Districts:	Belfast, Castlereagh
EP constituency:	Northern Ireland

Belfast South is a Parliamentary Constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons.

Contents 1 Boundaries 1.1 Proposed boundary changes 2 History 3 Members of Parliament 4 Election results 4.1 Elections in the 2000s 4.2 Elections in the 1990s 4.3 Elections in the 1980s 4.4 Elections in the 1970s 4.5 Elections in the 1960s 4.6 Elections in the 1950s 4.7 Elections in the 1940s 4.8 Elections in the 1930s 4.9 Elections in the 1920s 4.10 Elections in the 1910s 4.11 Elections in the 1900s 4.12 Elections in the 1890s 4.13 Elections in the 1880s 5 Sources 6 See also

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 have been submitted as the final recommendations and are likely to be approved by Parliament before the end of 2007.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Election results

[edit] Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Democratic and Labour	Alasdair McDonnell	10,339	32.3	+1.7
	Democratic Unionist	Jimmy Spratt	9,104	28.4	N/A
	Ulster Unionist	Michael McGimpsey	7,263	22.7	-22.1
	Sinn Féin	Alex Maskey	2,882	9.0	+1.4
	Alliance	Geraldine Rice	2,012	6.3	+0.9
	Rainbow Dream Ticket	Lynda Gilby	235	0.7	+0.4
	Workers' Party	Paddy Lynn	193	0.6	+0.1
Majority			1,235	3.9
Turnout			32,028	60.8	-3.1
	Social Democratic and Labour gain from Ulster Unionist		Swing

General Election 2001: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	Martin Smyth	17,008	44.8	+8.8
	Social Democratic and Labour	Alasdair McDonnell	11,609	30.6	+6.3
	NI Women's Coalition	Monica McWilliams	2,968	7.8	0.0
	Sinn Féin	Alex Maskey	2,894	7.6	+2.5
	Alliance	Geraldine Rice	2,042	5.4	-7.6
	Progressive Unionist	Dawn Purvis	1,112	2.9	-11.5
	Workers' Party	Paddy Lynn	204	0.5	-0.2
	Rainbow Dream Ticket	Rainbow George Weiss	115	0.3	N/A
Majority			5,399	14.2
Turnout			37,952	63.9	+1.6
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

[edit] Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	Martin Smyth	14,201	36.0	-18.7
	Social Democratic and Labour	Alasdair McDonnell	9,601	24.3	+10.1
	Progressive Unionist	David Ervine	5,687	14.4	N/A
	Alliance	Steve McBride	5,112	12.9	-2.8
	Sinn Féin	Sean Hayes	2,019	5.1	+2.6
	NI Women's Coalition	Annie Campbell	1,204	3.0	N/A
	Conservative	Myrtle Boal	962	2.4	-9.3
	Independent Labour	Niall Cusack	292	0.7	N/A
	Workers' Party	Paddy Lynn	286	0.7	N/A
	Natural Law	James Anderson	120	0.3	N/A
Majority			4,600
Turnout				62.2
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

1997 Changes are compared to the 1992 notional results shown below ^[1].

Notional 1992 UK General Election Result : Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	N/A	23,258	52.7	N/a
	Alliance	N/A	6,921	15.7	N/A
	Social Democratic and Labour	N/A	6,266	14.2	N/A
	Conservative	N/A	5,154	11.7	N/A
	Others	N/A	1,437	3.3	N/A
	Sinn Féin	N/A	1,116	2.5	N/A
Majority			16,337	37.0	N/A

General Election 1992: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	Martin Smyth	16,336	48.6
	Social Democratic and Labour	Alasdair McDonnell	6,266	18.7
	Alliance	John Montgomery	5,054	15.0
	Conservative	Andrew Fee	3,356	10.0
	Sinn Féin	Sean Hayes	1,123	3.3
	Labour and Trade Union	Peter Hadden	875	2.6
	Workers' Party	Paddy Lynn	362	1.1
	Natural Law	Teresa Mullen	212	0.6
Majority			10,070
Turnout				64.5
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

[edit] Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	Martin Smyth	18,917	57.8
	Alliance	David Cook	6,963	21.3
	Social Democratic and Labour	Alasdair McDonnell	4,268	13.1
	Workers' Party	Gerry Carr	1,528	4.7
	Sinn Féin	Sean McKnight	1,030	3.2
Majority			11,954	36.6
Turnout				60.3
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

By-election January 23 1986: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	Martin Smyth	21,771	71.3
	Alliance	David Cook	7,635	25.0
	Workers' Party	Gerry Carr	1,109	3.6
Majority			14,136	46.3
Turnout				56.9
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

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.

General Election 1983: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	Martin Smyth	18,669	50.0
	Alliance	David Cook	8,945	23.9
	Democratic Unionist	Raymond McCrea	4,565	12.2
	Social Democratic and Labour	Alasdair McDonnell	3,216	8.6
	Sinn Féin	Sean McKnight	1,107	3.0
	Workers' Party	Gerry Carr	856	2.3
Majority			9,724	26.0
Turnout				69.6
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

By-election March 4 1982: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	Martin Smyth	17,123	39.3
	Alliance	David Cook	11,726	26.9
	Democratic Unionist	William McCrea	9,818	22.6
	Social Democratic and Labour	Alasdair McDonnell	3,839	8.8
	Ulster Loyalist Democratic Party	John McMichael	576	1.3
	United Labour Party	Brian Caul	303	0.7
	One Human Family	Jagat Narain	137	0.3
	Peace State	Simon Hall-Raleigh	12	0.03
Majority			5,397	12.4
Turnout				66.2
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

[edit] Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1979: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	Robert Bradford	28,875	61.7
	Alliance	Basil Glass	11,745	25.1
	Social Democratic and Labour	Alasdair McDonnell	3,694	7.9
	Unionist Party NI	Victor Brennan	1,784	3.8	N/A
	Labour Integrationist	Jeff Dudgeon	692	1.5	N/A
Majority			17,130	36.6
Turnout				67.9
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

General Election October 1974: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Vanguard Progressive Unionist	Robert Bradford	30,116	59.2
	Alliance	John Glass	11,715	23.0
	Independent Unionist	Stanley McMaster	4,982	9.8	N/A
	Social Democratic and Labour	John Carraher	2,390	4.7
	Labour (NI)	Erskine Holmes	1,643	3.2
Majority			18,401	36.2
Turnout			50,846	67.7
	Vanguard Progressive Unionist hold		Swing

General Election February 1974: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Vanguard Progressive Unionist	Robert Bradford	22,083	42.6	N/A
	Pro-Assembly Unionist	Rafton Pounder	18,085	34.9
	Alliance	David Cook	5,118	9.9	N/A
	Social Democratic and Labour	John Carraher	4,149	8.0	N/A
	Labour (NI)	Erskine Holmes	2,455	4.7
Majority			3,998	7.7
Turnout			51,890	69.6
	Vanguard Progressive Unionist gain from Ulster Unionist		Swing

General Election 1970: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	Rafton Pounder	27,523	70.4
	Labour (NI)	John Coulthard	11,567	29.6
Majority			15,956	40.8
Turnout			39,090	68.4
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

[edit] Elections in the 1960s

General Election 1966: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	Rafton Pounder	23,329	65.4
	Labour (NI)	Erskine Holmes	12,364	34.6
Majority			10,965	30.7
Turnout			35,693	63.3
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 1964: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	Rafton Pounder	27,422	69.8
	Labour (NI)	John Barkley	8,792	22.4
	Liberal	Judith Rosenfield	1,941	4.9
	Independent Republican	Robert McKnight	1,159	3.0
Majority			18,630	47.4
Turnout			39,314	68.3
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

Belfast South by-election, 1963
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	Rafton Pounder	17,989
	Labour (NI)	Norman Searight	7,209
	Liberal	Albert Hamilton	2,774
Majority			10,780
Turnout
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

[edit] Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1959: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	David Campbell	30,164	69.9
	Labour (NI)	Norman Searight	9,318	21.6
	Liberal	Sheelagh Murnaghan	3,253	7.5
	Sinn Féin	Brendan O'Reilly	434	1.0
Majority			20,846	48.3
Turnout			43,169	72.1
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 1955: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	David Campbell	33,392	78.4
	Labour (NI)	Edward Brown	7,508	17.6
	Sinn Féin	Patrick Kearney	1,679	3.9
Majority			25,884	60.8
Turnout			42,579	65.7
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

Belfast South by-election, 1952
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	David Campbell	23,067	75.1
	Labour (NI)	Samuel Napier	7,655	24.9
Majority			15,412
Turnout				46.4
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 1951: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	Hugh Gage	37,046	75.8
	Labour (NI)	Robert McBrinn	11,815	24.2
Majority			25,231	51.6
Turnout			48,861	73.8
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 1950: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	Hugh Gage	34,620	75.2
	Labour (NI)	James McKernan	11,428	24.8
Majority			23,192	50.4
Turnout			46,048	69.3
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

[edit] Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	Hugh Gage	24,282	52.2
	Commonwealth Labour	Harry Midgley	14,096	30.3
	Labour (NI)	James Morrow	8,166	17.5
Majority			10,186	21.9
Turnout			46,544	66.4
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

[edit] Elections in the 1930s

In the 1931 and 1935 UK general elections, William Stewart was elected unopposed.

[edit] Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1929: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	William Stewart	24,019	62.9
	Independent Unionist	Philip James Woods	14,148	37.1
Majority			9,871	25.9
Turnout			38,167	64.7
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

At the 1922, 1923 and 1924 UK general elections, Thomas Moles was elected unopposed.

[edit] Elections in the 1910s

At the Belfast South by-election, 1917, William Arthur Lindsay was returned unopposed.

General Election December 1910: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Unionist	James Chambers	5,585
	Independent Unionist	Thomas Henry Sloan	2,722
Majority			2,863
Turnout			8,307	78.2
	Irish Unionist hold		Swing

General Election January 1910: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Unionist	James Chambers	5,772
	Independent Unionist	Thomas Henry Sloan	3,553
Majority			2,219
Turnout			9,325	87.8
	Irish Unionist gain from Independent Unionist		Swing

[edit] Elections in the 1900s

General Election 1906: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent Unionist	Thomas Henry Sloan	4,450		N/A
	Irish Unionist	Arthur Hill	3,634		N/A
Majority			816		N/A
Turnout			8,084	84.8	N/A
	Independent Unionist gain from Conservative		Swing	N/A

Belfast South by-election, 1902
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent Unionist	Thomas Henry Sloan	3,795		N/A
	Conservative	C. W. Dunbar Buller	2,969		N/A
Majority			826		N/A
Turnout			6,764	60.1	N/A
	Independent Unionist gain from Conservative		Swing

At the United Kingdom general election, 1900, William Johnston was elected unopposed.

[edit] Elections in the 1890s

At the 1892 and 1895 UK general elections, William Johnston was elected unopposed.

[edit] Elections in the 1880s

General Election 1886: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Johnston	4,442
	Irish Parliamentary	A. McErlean	657
Majority			3,785
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1885: Belfast South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Johnston	3,610
	Irish Parliamentary	J. W. Workman	990
	Conservative	R. Seeds	871
Majority			2,620
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

[edit] 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)
• F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918 - 1949
• F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1950 - 1970
• The Liberal Year Book For 1917, Liberal Publication Department
• The Constitutional Year Book For 1912, Conservative Central Office
• The Constitutional Year Book For 1894, Conservative Central Office

[edit] See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland

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