Will boundary changes impact formerly safe seats

Will boundary changes impact formerly safe seats

19 June 2024

THE runners and riders in next month’s Westminster election have been confirmed with voters across the district set to make history by electing three MPs for the first time.

In the first summer election since 1945, voters will select new MPs in South Down, Strangford and the newly created Belfast South and Mid Down constituency, on July 4.

Significant changes in parliamentary boundaries in South Down and Strangford in particular have set up what promises to be an intriguing election, with Sinn Fein, the DUP, Alliance and SDLP battling for electoral supremacy.

Parts of the Downpatrick ward, in tandem with those of Dunsford, Kilclief, Strangford village, Saul, Raholp and parts of Teconnaught, Annacloy and Drumaness are being moved from South Down into Strangford.

Crossgar – which was previously split between South Down and Strangford – has been totally subsumed into Strangford as a result of the boundary changes. 

And Saintfield has been moved from Strangford into the new South Belfast and Mid Down constituency.

With 15 days until votes are cast, candidates are on the campaign trail, a proliferation of election posters have been put up by an army of workers and postmen are preparing to distribute thousands of election leaflets through letterboxes.

Eight of the 136 candidates chasing the 18 Westminster seats up for grabs are standing in South Down where the smart money is on Sinn Fein’s Chris Hazzard retaining his seat which he wrestled from the SDLP’s Margaret Ritchie in 2017.

Mr Hazzard, who is contesting his fourth Westminster poll, retained his seat five years ago when he saw off a concerted challenge from the SDLP’s Michael Savage. 

But Mr Hazzard is not a politician who deals in complacency, despite the party’s strong foothold across the constituency, and will be pulling out all the stops to retain his seat.

The SDLP has selected South Down MLA Colin McGrath this time around, who is his party’s Assembly spokesman and one of its senior figures at Stormont.

Diane Forsythe is the DUP standard bearer in South Down where her father Glyn Hanna, a Newry, Mourne and Down councillor, stood in 2019 and 

finished third behind Mr Hazzard and Mr Savage on 7,619 votes.

Once again all eyes will be on Alliance’s performance.

Patrick Brown would have been the party’s shoe-in candidate, but his shock decision to quit frontline politics in April citing “personal reasons” catapulted Slieve Croob councillor Andy McMurray into the spotlight. 

Regarded as a safe pair of hands and extremely well thought of across the party, Mr McMurray was co-opted to replace Mr Brown in the Assembly and was also chosen to contest the Westminster election. McMurray was also the party’s standard bearers in the 2019 parliamentary election.

Aontú's Rosemary McGlone is contesting her first Westminster election two years after she was the party’s Assembly candidate when she polled 1,177 first preference votes. In 2019, Paul Brady stood for Aontú in the general election.

Michael O’Loan, the son of a former Newcastle Primary School principal, has been chosen by the Ulster Unionist Party to contest the South Down seat. In 2019, former Newry, Mourne and Down councillor Jill Macauley was the party’s candidate.

Educated at Down High School and Durham University, he trained to be an accountant in Belfast, served in the UDR and was active in the Ulster Young Unionists. He currently works in a prison segregation unit.

Former DUP man Jim Wells has been selected by the TUV to contest South Down.

A former Stormont Health Minister, he didn’t contest the 2022 Assembly election for the TUV and backed Harold McKee, who was a former UUP Assembly member.

Mr Wells represented South Down in the Northern Ireland Assembly in its various guises for  almost three decade up until March 2022. He was also a councillor for 17 years, serving on both Banbridge and Down Councils. 

The Northern Ireland Conservatives, which last contested South Down in 2015 when Felicity Buchanan was the candidate, has opted for Hannah Westropp this time around.

A business development professional and former school governor and district councillor, she said finding new and creative ways to strengthen the local economy would be a top priority for her with the ambition to attract more investment into South Down, to boost the local economy and to create more jobs.

The Green Party, which hasn’t fielded a Westminster candidate since 2010 when Downpatrick councillor Cadogan Enright was the candidate, has selected Declan Walsh.The Greens did contest the 2022 Assembly election.

The outcome of the July 4 poll will not only see the three MPs elected for the first time in its history, it will also provide a key insight into their respective electoral strength following the parliamentary boundary changes ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections.

And in an interesting aside, Newry, Mourne and Down Council’s newly elected chairman, Pete Byrne, has been chosen as the SDLP candidate to contest the Newry and Armagh seat previously held by Mickey Brady, who is not standing.