- For other constituencies of the same name, see Belfast West.
Belfast West is a Parliamentary Constituency in the
British 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.
Proposed boundary changes
At the time of writing the Boundary Commission has proposed
alterations for the boundaries of constituencies in Northern Ireland. Belfast West currently has one of the smallest electorates
of any constituency in Northern Ireland and it is proposed to expand it further into Lisburn,
taking in areas currently contained in Lagan Valley.
Not included in the proposals is a common suggestion to reunite the five wards centred on the Shankill Road which are currently split between Belfast West and Belfast North. At the boundary commission hearings in September 2005, the
issue of transferring the Crumlin and Woodvale wards to West Belfast to unite the Greater Shankill was raised by Alliance and a
private individual but was vociferously opposed by the DUP led by local MP Nigel Dodds and to a lesser extent by the Ulster
Unionists. Both the SDLP and Sinn Féin had little to say on the latter issue and neither opposed nor supported it. Additionally
while the Belfast DUP, represented at the enquiry by Nigel Dodds MP, supported the retention of the status quo, Jeffrey Donaldson
MP for Lagan Valley as well as numerous local residents (in a petition submitted to the Commission) opposed the addition of the
Dunmurry and Seymour Hill areas.
The Commission's revised recommendations, published in May 2006, add the Dunmurry ward and
the Northern part of Derriaghy ward. This is the first time that a ward will be split between constituencies by a boundary
commission. It is likely that these changes will be final.
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
John 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
Westminster seat. Few expect Sinn Féin to lose the seat again for many years.
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.
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
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
