'Seismic' shock as Ian Paisley Jr loses seat and Sinn Féin becomes largest NI party

Fri, 05 Jul, 2024 - 06:45

Michelle McGlynn and Rory Carroll

The Democratic Unionist party (DUP) is on track to lose three of its eight seats, which would leave Sinn Féin as the Northern Ireland party with most MPs.

The DUP lost the Lagan Valley seat vacated by its former leader, Jeffrey Donaldson, who faces sexual offence charges, and faced a stunning defeat in North Antrim where Ian Paisley lost a seat held by his family since 1970. It also lost South Antrim and had reduced majorities elsewhere.

The Paisley family has held the North Antrim seat for more than 50 years, but that legacy has come to an end with the victory of Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister in the unionist heartland.

Mr Allister said: “There is no escaping the fact that there has been a political earthquake in North Antrim of seismic proportions.

“Today, we mark an occasion when after 54 years of DUP and Ian Paisley dynasty, North Antrim has taken an alternative course.”

The TUV, Ulster Unionists and Alliance were posed to take the DUP seats but the symbolic winner will be Sinn Féin which retained its seven seats and is on course to complete a hat-trick as the biggest party in local government, the Stormont assembly and Westminster.

The DUP leader, Gavin Robinson, fended off a challenge from Alliance’s Naomi Long in East Belfast but that could not conceal a devastating election for unionism’s biggest party.

Its record on Brexit and other missteps, left it squeezed between moderate and hardline rivals.

In an astonishing reversal in North Antrim, Paisley, the son and namesake of the DUP’s late founder, lagged Jim Allister of the TUV, who blamed the DUP for post-Brexit checks on goods coming from Britain, which he said weakened Northern Ireland’s place in the UK.

“This is a momentous outcome and is the end of an era and a dynasty,” said Allister. “Unionism does need to regroup in the light of what has happened and the DUP needs to carry the responsibility for their losses.”

Reform had originally backed the TUV but upon becoming leader, Nigel Farage endorsed Paisley, a Brexiter ally. “I might say I’m here in spite of you, Nigel,” said Allister.

Sorcha Eastwood of Alliance won Lagan Valley in a historic swing for what used to be a unionist bastion. The DUP fielded Jonathan Buckley to replace Donaldson, who had held the seat for decades and stepped aside after being charged with sexual offences, which he denies.

Eastwood called it a “huge achievement” for her party. “I’m a Lagan Valley girl born and bred, and this has been in our heart for a long time and I’m just delighted,” she said.

Alliance’s joy was tempered by its deputy leader, Stephen Farry, losing his seat in North Down to the independent unionist Alex Eastwood.

The Ulster Unionist candidate Robin Swann, a former Stormont health minister, ousted the DUP’s Paul Girvan as MP for South Antrim.

The Social Democratic and Labour party retained its two MPs, Colum Eastwood and Claire Hanna.

Sinn Féin held its seven seats and whittled the majority of the East Derry seat held by the DUP’s Gregory Campbell. The republican party leader Michelle O’Neill called it a “tremendous result right across the board”.

Speaking about the election results in the North, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he was shocked to see Mr Paisley had lost his seat in North Antrim. He said that no one had thought that the Paisley dynasty was in any trouble having held the seat for over 50 years.

Looking at the broader election results in the North, Mr Ahern told RTÉ Radio 1's Today with Claire Byrne that the DUP will be upset at the seats they have lost.

Mr Ahern said the party will already be looking ahead to see how they can build on this progress and continue to grow in the next election.

He echoed Mr Harris' hope that the new British prime minister will work closely with Irish leaders to improve Anglo-Irish relations.

The structures in place as part of the Good Friday Agreement have not been used to their full potential, especially in recent years, said Mr Ahern.

When Mr Ahern was Taoiseach, he would have regular meetings with then-British prime minister Tony Blair but once Britain formally left the EU in 2017 these meetings stopped.

The change of government in the UK provides an opportunity for people to step up and strengthen relations between the North and south as well as between Ireland and Britain.