David Honeyford is an Alliance Party politician, serving as a

Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs; ; ) are representatives elected by the voters to the Northern Ireland Assembly. About The Northern Ireland Assembly has 90 elected members – five from each of 18 constituencies, the boundaries o ...

(MLA) for Lagan Valley since

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Political party memberships

He joined the Alliance Party in 2014 after a short introduction into politics with NI21, becoming a member of Alliance’s ruling Executive in 2016. He stepped down from that role in February 2017 after making a comment on Twitter, for which he apologised, that unionists were “bred to hate Catholics more than corruption”.

Political career

Early career

In the May 2014 local elections to

Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council Lisburn ( ; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with t ...

, Honeyford was the

NI21 NI21 was a short-lived political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 2013 by former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MLAs, Basil McCrea and John McCallister. Although it explicitly supported Northern Ireland staying part of the United Kin ...

candidate for the constituency of Killultagh. With the eve of poll collapse of NI21 Honeyford received 399 votes or 6.16% of First Preference Votes.

Councillor (2019-2022)

Honeyford was first elected to

at the 2019 local elections for the Killultagh constituency. He topped the poll, with 20.3% of first preference votes and gained a seat for Alliance at the expense of the DUP's William Leathem. This was the first time an Alliance candidate had won in the Killultagh constituency

Member of the Legislative Assembly (2022-)

Honeyford was later elected as an MLA in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election for Lagan Valley, alongside fellow Alliance Party candidate

Sorcha Eastwood Sorcha-Lucy Eastwood is a Northern Irish politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Lagan Valley since 2024. A member of the Alliance Party, she previously served as a member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Lagan Valle ...

, after winning 4,183 First Preference Votes. He was elected on the 7th count, taking the constituency's final seat from the

SDLP The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP; ) is a social democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland Assembly ( MLAs) and two members of Parliament (MPs ...

's Pat Catney by a margin of 644 votes - the seventh closest margin in Northern Ireland. David is the Alliance Party Spokesperson for the Economy, Energy, Trade and Investment and published Alliance’s Economic vision for a Shared Island He also Chairs the Stormont All Party Group for Sport.

Personal life

David Honeyford was educated at Lagan College during the very early years of Integrated Education in Northern Ireland. Honeyford previously worked in construction and was self-employed for 25 years. As of January 2025, he is the Development Officer at Glenavy GAC, and was presented with the Club Member of the Year Award in 2018 and is an Irish and Ulster rugby fan.

References

External links

* Living people Alliance Party of Northern Ireland MLAs Northern Ireland MLAs 2022–2027 Year of birth missing (living people) {{Northern-Ireland-MLA-stub