Westminster Elections Results

Westminster Elections Results in Northern Ireland

There were some surprises in the election of Northern Ireland’s, 18 MPs. The biggest shock was the Democratic Unionist Leader, Peter Robinson, losing his seat in East Belfast. However, it would appear that the scandal surrounding Peter’s wife Iris in which she had an affair with a young man and had used her political position to set that young man up in business, cost Peter his seat that he held for the past 31 years.

However, the DUP went on to win 8 seats which was a good result for the DUP. The Ulster Unionists under the leadership of Sir Reg Empey failed to get even one seat and so the Unionist family are in some real difficulty. Sir Reg had joined forces with the Tory Party and this was never a good idea.

Sinn Fein maintained their 5 seats after a four vote majority win in Fermanagh South/Tyrone, however, as they do not take their seats due to their policy of Abstentianism votes for Sinn Fein are worthless to the electorate. This is simply a tribal vote that keeps Unionist candidates or indeed hard working Nationalists out of office.

The SDLP did however win three seats and they will be working their mandate in Westminster. The Alliance Party (non-sectarian) won the seat formally held by Peter Robinson and Lady Sylvia Herman, wife of the former RUC Chief Constable won a seat as an Independent.

The DUP will most certainly offer support to David Cameron in return for a guaranteed full budget/grant for Northern Ireland and they will want to see some policy changes in relation to other matters in the north. The SDLP will support Labour, however, that support will have little impact in this Parliament.