North Antrim (UK Parliament constituency)

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Template:Infobox UK constituency North Antrim is a parliamentary constituency of the United Kingdom House of Commons located in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The current Member of Parliament is Jim Allister of Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), who was first elected in the 2024 general election.

Boundaries

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File:Giants Causeway 2.jpg

Giant's Causeway

1950–1974: The Boroughs of Ballymena and Larne, the Urban Districts of Ballycastle, Ballymoney, and Portrush, the Rural Districts of Ballycastle, Ballymena, and Ballymoney, and in the Rural District of Larne the electoral divisions of Ardclinis, Ballycor, Carncastle, Glenarm North, Glenarm South, Glencloy, and Kilwaughter.

1974–1983: The Boroughs of Ballymena, Carrickfergus, and Larne, the Urban Districts of Ballycastle, Ballymoney, Portrush, and Whitehead, the Rural Districts of Ballycastle, Ballymena, and Ballymoney, and in the Rural District of Larne the electoral divisions of Ardclinis, Ballycor, Carncastle, Eden, Glenarm North, Glenarm South, Glencloy, Glynn, Islandmagee North, Islandmagee South, Kilwaughter, Middle Division, Raloo, and Templecorran.

1983–2010: The District of Ballymena, the District of Ballymoney, and the District of Moyle.

2010–present: The District of Ballymena, the District of Ballymoney, and the District of Moyle wards of Armoy, Ballylough, Bushmills, Bonamargy and Rathlin, Carnmoon, Dalriada, Dunseverick, Glenshesk, Glentaisie, Kinbane, Knocklayd, Moss Side, and Moyarget.

North Antrim has always been a county constituency comprising the northern part of County Antrim in the north-east of Northern Ireland. It has the sea to the north and east and parts of the border with County Londonderry to the west – the County Antrim town of Portrush is included in the East Londonderry constituency (although it was in this seat until 1983).

File:Irish parliamentary constituencies 1885 - 1922 North Antrim.svg

North Antrim constituency, 1885–1922

From 1885, this constituency was one of four county divisions carved out of the former constituency of Antrim. It comprised the baronies of Cary, Dunluce Lower, Dunluce Upper and Kilconway and returned one Member of Parliament from 1885 until 1922, when it was merged into a new Antrim constituency.

North Antrim was re-created in 1950 when the old Antrim two MP constituency was abolished as part of the final move to single member seats.

The constituency is largely rural. Amongst the features within its boundaries are Rathlin Island and Giant's Causeway.

File:RathlinBirdSanctuary.jpg

Rathlin Island

The Boundary Commission initially proposed alterations for the boundaries of North Antrim prior to the 2010 general election. It was proposed to transfer Ballycastle and the Glens, including Rathlin Island, in Moyle to East Antrim and rename that seat Antrim Coast & Glens. However that proposal raised many questions, with some arguing that the Glens have no natural ties to Jordanstown. Following consultation and revision, the constituency alterations were passed through the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Constituencies Order.

History

North Antrim is an overwhelmingly unionist seat. It first existed from 1885 to 1922. From 1886 to 1974, the Unionist members of the United Kingdom House of Commons sat with the Conservative Party.

Unusually for Ireland, the Liberal Party retained significant strength in this constituency after the split over Home Rule in 1886. The Irish Parliamentary Party never contested the seat.

In 1906 the constituency was won by a Russellite Unionist, at least somewhat linked to the Liberal Party. Although the Unionists regained the seat when the sitting MP retired, the constituency was one of very few Unionist/Liberal marginals in Ireland at both 1910 elections.

A victory for the Unionist candidate in 1918 by 9,621 votes to Sinn Féin's 2,673 votes demonstrated the strength of the unionist support in the area.

In 1922, the constituency reverted to being part of the two member Antrim seat (as it had been before 1885). North Antrim was re-created in 1950 as a larger seat than it had been in its first incarnation. County Antrim, excluding the parts in the Belfast constituencies, was split into two divisions instead of four as previously. The 1950 North Antrim was comparable to the North and Mid Antrim divisions which had existed from 1885 to 1922.

Since 1950 the Westminster elections have been relatively uncompetitive. In 1951, it was one of the last four seats to be uncontested in a UK general election. More recently, one man repeatedly won by a large majority: Ian Paisley was first elected as a Protestant Unionist Party candidate in the 1970 general election after narrowly defeating sitting member Henry Clark. The following year that party changed to the Democratic Unionist Party and Paisley easily held the seat for 40 years until his retirement in 2010. This is the longest continuous period for which the current holding party has held any Northern Irish seat. In elections at all levels, the DUP have frequently had their highest share of the vote in North Antrim and have rarely been seriously challenged.

In March 2010 Ian Paisley announced that he would step down at the 2010 general election. His son Ian Paisley Jr was selected by the DUP to replace him as candidate.^[1] Former DUP MEP Jim Allister announced that he would contest the constituency for the Traditional Unionist Voice.^[2] Paisley Jr was elected with a significantly reduced majority.

In July 2018 North Antrim was the site of the first recall petition UK held in the under the provisions of the Recall of MPs Act 2015. This petition was launched following a critical report into Paisley Jr's conduct in respect to an undeclared trip to Sri Lanka, and Paisley Jr subsequently being suspended from the Commons for 30 days. The petition was signed by 9.4% of the electorate, short of the 10% required to unseat Paisley Jr and trigger a by-election.

Members of Parliament

The Member of Parliament since the 2024 general election is Jim Allister of the TUV, after the DUP lost the seat for the first time since gaining it in 1970 as the Protestant Unionist Party. It had also been the first time in 50 years that the seat was not held by a member of the Paisley family.^[3]

North Antrim has had comparatively few MPs in its lifetime compared to other parliamentary constituencies. Sir Hugh O'Neill had sat for one of the predecessor seats of Mid Antrim between 1915 and 1922 and Antrim between 1922 until 1950, making this one of the few seats where four individuals between them represented the seat continuously over a period of ninety years.

Election		Member	Party
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1885	Edward Macnaghten	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1887 by-election	Sir Charles Lewis Bt	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1891	Sir Charles Lewis Bt	Irish Unionist
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1892	Charles Connor
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1895	Colonel Hugh McCalmont
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1899 by-election	William Moore
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1906	Robert Glendinning	Russellite Unionist
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1910 (Jan)	Peter Kerr-Smiley	Irish Unionist
1922		Constituency abolished. See Antrim
1950		Constituency recreated
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1950	Sir Hugh O'Neill	Ulster Unionist
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1952 by-election	Phelim O'Neill
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1959	Henry Clark
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1970	Ian Paisley	Protestant Unionist
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1971	Ian Paisley	Democratic Unionist
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color"\|	2010	Ian Paisley Jr	Democratic Unionist
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	2018		Independent
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	2018		Democratic Unionist
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	2024	Jim Allister	Traditional Unionist Voice

Elections

File:North Antrim Parliamentary.png

Elections in the 2020s

2024 general election: North Antrim^[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	<templatestyles src="Template:Tooltip/styles.css" />±%Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
	Script error: No such module "Political party".	Jim Allister	Template:Replace	28.3	Script error: No such module "String".
	Script error: No such module "Political party".	Ian Paisley Jr	11,192	27.2	Script error: No such module "String".
	Script error: No such module "Political party".	Philip McGuigan	7,714	18.7	Script error: No such module "String".
	Script error: No such module "Political party".	Sian Mulholland	4,488	10.9	Script error: No such module "String".
	Script error: No such module "Political party".	Jackson Minford	3,901	9.5	Script error: No such module "String".
	Script error: No such module "Political party".	Helen Maher	1,661	4.0	Script error: No such module "String".
	Script error: No such module "Political party".	Ráichéal Mhic Niocaill	451	1.1	Script error: No such module "String".
	Script error: No such module "Political party".	Tristan Morrow	136	0.3	Script error: No such module "String".
Majority			450	1.1	Script error: No such module "String".
Turnout			41,185	55.1	Script error: No such module "String".
Registered electors			74,697		Script error: No such module "String".
	Script error: No such module "Political party". gain from Script error: No such module "Political party". Template:Yesno		Swing	+26.0

Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".This was the first time the TUV gained a UK Parliament seat, as well as the first time in over 50 years the DUP lost the seat, since Ian Paisley gained it in 1970 as the Protestant Unionist Party candidate.