Belfast West (UK Parliament constituency)
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Belfast West Borough constituency
Belfast West shown within Northern Ireland
Created:	1885, 1922
MP:	Gerry Adams
Party:	Sinn Féin
Type:	House of Commons
Districts:	Belfast, Lisburn
EP constituency:	Northern Ireland

For other constituencies of the same name, see Belfast West.

Belfast West is a Parliamentary Constituency in the UK House of Commons.

Boundaries

The seat was created in 1922 when as part of the establishment of the devolved Stormont Parliament for Northern Ireland, the number of MPs in the Westminster Parliament was drastically cut. The seat is centred on the west section of Belfast, though between 1983 and 1996/7 it included the area around the Docks on the north east side of the Lagan Estuary. Belfast West also contains part of the city of Lisburn.

Boundary changes

Initially the Boundary Commission proposed alterations for the boundaries of constituencies in Northern Ireland, with Belfast West set as one of the smallest electorates of any constituency in Northern Ireland.

The Commission's revised recommendations, published in May 2006, added the Dunmurry ward and the Northern part of Derriaghy ward. Following public consultation, the proposals were passed through Parliament via the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Constituencies Order. In an unprecedented move by a Boundary Commission, an electoral ward will be split between constituencies following disquiet in parts of Derryaghy. This ward will be split between Belfast West and Lagan Valley.

The constituency will be fought at the next UK general election with the following electoral areas;

• From the Belfast district; Andersonstown, Beechmount, Clonard, Falls, Falls Park, Glencairn, Glencolin, Glen Road, Highfield, Ladybrook, Shankill, Upper Springfield, and Whiterock
• From Lisburn city district; Collin Glen, Dunmurry, Kilwee, Poleglass, and Twinbrook. The ward of Derryaghy will be split so that which lies to the north of its boundary with Lagmore will be in this seat.

History

Belfast West has historically been the most nationalist of Belfast's four constituencies, though it is only in the last few decades that the votes for unionist parties have plunged to tiny levels. The constituency is largely made of a long, slender, belt along the Falls Road and its suburban extensions, with three of the five wards from the staunchly unionist Shankill area now something of a bolt-on, with a several kilometre long Peace Line dividing them from the rest of the constituency. There is also a smaller Protestant enclave at Suffolk.

Unsurprisingly, the tenor of the constituency is largely working class and in the 1991 census it was one of only twenty constituencies where the majority of housing was still council owned. Although there are now large pockets of middle-class housing in Andersonstown and other suburban parts of the seat. Closer to the centre public-sector terraced housing, both Victorian and high quality modern housing, predominates, while in the suburbs, leafy pockets are scattered among post-War housing estates such as Lenadoon and Twinbrook.

The Westminster constituency was consistently held by the Ulster Unionist Party but always had strong Labour movement sympathies. In the UK general election, 1923, the Belfast Labour Party came within 1,000 votes of taking the seat. A by-election in 1943 was won by Jack Beattie, standing for the Northern Ireland Labour Party. For the next twenty-three years the seat would regularly change from unionist to nationalist/labour, with the latter represented by a variety of parties.

In the 1966 general election the seat was won by Gerry Fitt of the Republican Labour Party. Later in 1970 he left that party to become a founder and first leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. In the February 1974 general election, Belfast West was the only constituency in Northern Ireland to elect an MP supporting the Sunningdale Agreement. Fitt's majority was a narrow 2180 votes in February 1974 primarily due to the candidature of Albert Price the father of the Price sisters who were in prison in England for PIRA related offences. However the candidacy of a UVF backed candidate in October 1974 and a declining Unionist vote in 1979 led to him increasing his majorities in subsequent years. He retained the seat for the next nine years but increasingly distanced himself from nationalist groups and in late 1979 he left the SDLP altogether. He sat as an independent socialist but lost his seat in the 1983 when it was won by Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin. The Unionist vote which had still been at 30% in the 1982 Assembly elections was cut to 20% as a result of the 1983 boundary changes which, while adding the loyalist Glencairn area, removed the Donegall Road, Sandy Row and added the Nationalist Lenadoon area.

Adams' share of the vote, at 37%, was short of a majority and he achieved victory only due to Fitt and the SDLP candidate splitting the non-Sinn Féin vote. In the 1987 Adams narrowly held his seat, but lost it in the 1992 general election amidst a strong tactical voting campaign in favour of Joe Hendron of the Social Democratic and Labour Party by unionists in the Shankill Road area of the constituency. Hendron and his election agent were found guilty in an election court of having performed "corrupt and illegal practices" during the election by accepting advertising in the Irish News at less than the market rate, but the court upheld the election result.

In the mid 1990s the Boundary Commission originally suggested removing the Shankill wards from the constituency and replacing them with about half of the Belfast South constituency namely the 6 wards of the Balmoral Electoral Area and the Shaftesbury ward, effectively transforming the seat into a Belfast South West constituency.

The subsequent local enquiries were bitterly contested with the SDLP favouring the commission's original proposals which would add an area where Sinn Féin had little support (and aside from the Shaftesbury ward, had not contested in council elections), while Sinn Féin argued instead for adding the mostly republican Twinbrook and Poleglass estates (where they were outpolling the SDLP in council elections by a margin of 3 to 1.) With all parties except the SDLP supporting an option of retaining four seats in Belfast the latter option became the commissions final proposals and the Shankill wards remained in the constituency.

The boundary changes, coupled with the IRA ceasefire, meant that support for Sinn Féin in the constituency soared to new levels and in all elections held in the seat since 1996 they have taken over 50% of the vote. In 1997 Adams regained the seat and held it in 2001 and 2005.

Members of Parliament

The Member of Parliament since the 1997 general election is Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin. He previously held the seat between 1983 and 1992 when he lost it to Joe Hendron of the Social Democratic and Labour Party but regained it in 1997.

Monument to James Horner Haslett, MP & Mayor of Belfast, grounds of Belfast City Hall

¹The Nationalists split into two opposing factions (pro- and anti-Charles Stewart Parnell) in December 1890. They re-merged in February 1900.

Election results

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

1997 Changes are compared to the 1992 notional results shown below ^[1].

Elections in the 1980s

Following the 1979 election, Fitt became increasingly at odds with the SDLP and left it, continuing to sit as an independent socialist.

Elections in the 1970s

After the 1970 election Fitt left the Republican Labour Party to cofound the Social Democratic & Labour Party. The remains of Republican Labour had disintegrated by 1974.

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1950s

Elections in the 1940s

Elections in the 1930s

Note: The sitting MP, W.E.D. Allen, had joined the New Party earlier in 1931 but did not contest the seat at the general election.

Elections in the 1920s

In the 1922 General Election, Robert Lynn was elected unopposed.

Elections in the 1910s