Foyle (UK Parliament constituency)
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Foyle is a
parliamentary constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...
in the
House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 me ...
. The current MP is Colum Eastwood of the SDLP.


Constituency profile

The name comes from the
River Foyle The River Foyle () is a river in west Ulster in the northwest of the island of Ireland, which flows from the confluence of the rivers Finn and Mourne at the towns of Lifford in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland, and Strabane in County Ty ...
which the city lies on and is used to avoid the contentious names of Derry or Londonderry, as well as to cover the areas of
County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...
that were originally in the constituency. The seat is
nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
-leaning and residents' wealth is below average for the UK. The wards within the constituency are among the poorest in the UK with high unemployment, high welfare dependency and the lowest employment rate for Northern Ireland. The seat has typically been an SDLP stronghold however in 2017 Sinn Fein gained the seat for the first time the smallest majority in Northern Ireland of 169. In 2019 SDLP leader Colum Eastwood won the seat back with an 18% swing and 17,000 majority.


Boundaries

The seat was created in boundary changes in 1983, as part of an expansion of Northern Ireland's constituencies from 12 to 17, and was predominantly made up from the old Londonderry constituency. From further revisions in 1995 (when it lost parts of the district of
Strabane Strabane ( ; ) is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Strabane had a population of 13,172 at the 2011 Census. It lies on the east bank of the River Foyle. It is roughly midway from Omagh, Derry and Letterkenny. The River Foyle marks ...
to the West Tyrone constituency), and until the 2008 revision, it covered exactly the same area as Derry City Council. Prior to the 2010 general election the transfer of Claudy and Banagher wards to East Londonderry were approved through the passing of the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Constituencies Order in 2008.


History

At the seat's creation at the 1983 general election, SDLP leader John Hume won the new seat, becoming the party's only MP after it lost Belfast West to
Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...
. Hume retained the seat until his retirement at the 2005 general election, when he was succeeded by the SDLP's
Mark Durkan Mark Durkan (born 26 June 1960) is a retired Irish nationalist politician from Northern Ireland. Durkan was the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from November 2001 to October 2002, and the Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour ...
. Durkan retained the seat in
2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
. This seat also gave the Alliance Party their worst share of the vote in Northern Ireland, polling just 0.6% of the votes. Durkan was re-elected to a third term in
2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
, increasing his share of the vote to 47.9% and winning a majority of 6,046 votes. In the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union, the constituency was estimated to have voted remain by 78.3%. This was the sixth highest support for remain for a constituency, and the highest support for remain in Northern Ireland. In the 2017 election, the seat was won by
Elisha McCallion Elisha McCallion (; born 21 October 1982) is an Irish former Sinn Féin politician who served as a Senator for the Industrial and Commercial Panel from April 2020 until October 2020. She previously served as Mayor of Derry from 2015 to 2016, a M ...
of
Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...
, who won with a majority of just 169 votes over Mark Durkan. Following the election, concerns about electoral malpractice were raised with the Electoral Office by the SDLP and
People Before Profit People Before Profit ( ga, Pobal Roimh Bhrabús, PBP) is a left-wing to far-left Trotskyist political party formed in October 2005. It is active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. History PBP was established in 2005 as t ...
's
Eamonn McCann Eamonn McCann (born 10 March 1943) is an Irish politician, journalist, political activist, and former councillor from Derry, Northern Ireland. McCann was a People Before Profit (PBP) Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Foyle from 2016 ...
. In the 2019 election, the seat was recaptured by SDLP leader Colum Eastwood. Sinn Féin's vote share dropped significantly from 39.7% in 2017 to 20.7% in 2019, which was the lowest percentage share that that party had won in any general election in the constituency since 1992.


Members of Parliament

The Member of Parliament since the 2019 UK General Election is Colum Eastwood of the SDLP. He succeeded
Elisha McCallion Elisha McCallion (; born 21 October 1982) is an Irish former Sinn Féin politician who served as a Senator for the Industrial and Commercial Panel from April 2020 until October 2020. She previously served as Mayor of Derry from 2015 to 2016, a M ...
of
Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...
to regain the seat which the SDLP had held from its 1983 creation until 2017. The constituency was previously represented by John Hume, former leader of the SDLP and recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
.


Elections


Elections in the 2010s

This seat saw the largest decrease in vote share for Sinn Féin at the 2019 general election.


Elections in the 2000s


Elections in the 1990s


Elections in the 1980s


See also

* Foyle and City of Londonderry were neighbouring constituencies in the Northern Ireland Parliament from 1929 to 1973. * '' Londonderry City'' was a borough constituency in the UK parliament from the Act of Union to 1922.


External links


2017 Election
House Of Commons Library 2017 Election report
A Vision Of Britain Through Time
(Constituency elector numbers)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foyle (Uk Parliament Constituency) Westminster Parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1983 Politics of Derry (city)