East Londonderry is a constituency in Northern Ireland represented in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

of the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...

. Its current Member of Parliament (MP) has been Gregory Campbell of the DUP since 2001.

Constituency profile

This is a mostly rural constituency stretching from the hill country of the Sperrin Mountains in the south to the Atlantic coast in the north; and from the suburbs of

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

city in the west to the

River Bann The River Bann (from , meaning "the goddess"; Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster-Scots: ''Bann Wattèr'') is the longest rivers, river in Northern Ireland, its length, Upper and Lower Bann combined, being 129 km (80 mi). The total length ...

in the east. The constituency's two main towns are

Limavady Limavady (; ) is a market town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, with Binevenagh as a backdrop. Lying east of Derry and southwest of Coleraine, Limavady had a population of 11,279 people at the 2021 Census. In the 40 years between 1 ...

and

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, No ...

; other urban areas include the upland town of Dungiven; and the coastal resorts of

Portstewart Portstewart () is a small seaside town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 7,854 people in the 2021 United Kingdom census. It is a seaside resort, neighbouring both Coleraine in County Londonderry and Portrush in Cou ...

and

Portrush Portrush () is a small seaside resort town on the north coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It neighbours the resort of Portstewart in County Londonderry. The main part of the old town, including the Portrush railway station, railway stati ...

(the latter in fact lies in Country Antrim).

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, minus the area around the city of

itself which formed the new Foyle constituency. From further revisions in 1995 (when it lost parts of the district of Magherafelt to the Mid Ulster constituency), and until the 2008 revision, it covered exactly the same area as the districts of

and

. The inclusion of all of Coleraine Borough means that part of the East Londonderry constituency is actually in

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

. For the 2010 general election the East Londonderry constituency was formed by the following local government areas, as confirmed by the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Constituencies Order. *The entire local government districts of

and

. *Banagher, and Claudy, from the Londonderry district. Prior to the 2024 general election, the following additions were made to the East Londonderry constituency: * The entire ward of Eglinton is transferred from Foyle. * The entire ward of

Claudy Claudy () is a village and townland (of 1,154 acres) in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It lies in the Faughan Valley, southeast of Derry, where the River Glenrandal joins the River Faughan. It is situated in the civil parish of Cumber ...

, which was split between Foyle and East Londonderry, is assigned to East Londonderry.

History

The constituency has a Unionist plurality although, in many elections, nationalists have polled 40% of the vote, and the middle-of-the-road

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

Party sometimes above 10%. Until the 2010 election the main interest in elections had been the contest between the

Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded as the Ulster Unionist Council in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it l ...

and the

Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist, Ulster loyalism, loyalist, British nationalist and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who ...

. The UUP were normally ahead of the DUP until the 2001 general election, when the DUP finally overtook them. The 2001 election was seen at a province-wide level as a battle over the

Belfast Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement ( or ; or ) is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April (Good Friday) 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the la ...

, with the DUP opposed to it and most of the UUP in favour. However, that situation was seemingly reversed in East Londonderry, in which the sitting Ulster Unionist MP, William Ross, was completely opposed to all involvement with the Agreement and its institutions, whilst the DUP candidate, Gregory Campbell, was a minister in the executive set up by the agreement. Many commentators joked that the DUP's gain meant that East Londonderry now had a ''more'' pro-agreement MP than before. In the 2016 EU referendum 21,098 people in the constituency voted to remain in the European Union, 19,455 voted to leave, and 10 votes were rejected. Unionist candidates failed to get a majority of the votes for the first time at the 2019 election, although they secured a plurality of votes. The seat had a considerable swing to Sinn Féin in the 2024 General Election of over 12%, but the DUP still just retained the constituency, albeit with a very narrow majority of 179 votes, now making it a highly marginal contest between them and Sinn Féin.

Members of Parliament

The Member of Parliament since the 2001 general election is Gregory Campbell of the

. In that election he defeated William Ross of the

who had represented East Londonderry since

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

and its predecessor seat of Londonderry between 1974 and

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

1997 changes are compared to the notional figures from 1992.

Elections in the 1980s

Demographics

On Census day 2021 there were 103,285 people living in the East Londonderry parliamentary constituency. Of these: *42.5% (43,869) belong to or were brought up in the Catholic Christian faith and 48.7% (50,342) belong to or were brought up in various 'Protestant and Other Christian (including Christian related)' denominations. 0.8% (871) belong to other religions and 7.9% (8,203) had no religious background. *36.6% (37,829) indicated that they had a British only identity, 22.9% (23,639) had an Irish only identity and 23.3% (24,083) had a Northern Irish only identity (respondents could indicate more than one national identity).

References

External links

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

(boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at ''MapIt UK''

(boundaries from June 2024) at ''MapIt UK'' {{Coord, 54.946, -6.953, display=title, region:GB_scale:100000 Westminster Parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland Politics of County Londonderry Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1983