High-profile Hanna hopes to hold off Alliance surge

High-profile Hanna hopes to hold off Alliance surge

19 June 2024

VOTERS in Saintfield will for the first time elect an MP for the new Belfast South and Mid Down constituency when they go to the polls on July 4.

The SDLP’s Claire Hanna is the former MP for South Belfast and is expected to retain her seat, but Alliance is confident that Kate Nicholl has the potential to make inroads into her thumping majority.

Just six candidates are contesting the seat in the new constituency which also includes Moneyreagh and Drumbo

Ms Hanna and Ms Nicholl are being joined by the TUV’s Dan Boucher, Aine Groogan (Green Party), the UUP’s Michael Henderson and the DUP’s Tracy Kelly.

The SDLP woman polled 27,079 votes in 209 with a 15,401 majority over the DUP’s Emma Little Pengelly who is now Stormont’s Deputy First Minister who lost her seat after Sinn Féin and the Greens both declined to field a candidate.

While Alliance was ahead of the SDLP in the last two council elections, the nationalist party was the voters’ overwhelming choice when it came to Westminster.

Mrs Hanna is a high profile politician and while canvassing in Saintfield may be a new experience for, she will be well known to voters.

She described the election as an “unmissable opportunity to get rid of the Tories and use our influence with a new, Labour government to give us the tools to make this an even better place to live”.

She added: “This place has the most wonderful sense of what it means to be a community – whether Saintfield or Stranmillis, Botanic or Belvoir, we know what it means to come together on the things that matter to us all.”

Zimbabwean-born Ms Nicholl, who moved to Northern Ireland in 2000 and was elected to Belfast City Council in 2016 before securing an Assembly seat two years ago, said Alliance was on track to add to its Westminster team.