South Antrim is an overwhelminglyunionist constituency which once had the strongest vote for theUlster Unionist Party anywhere in the province. From 1886 to 1974 the Conservative and Unionist members of the United Kingdom House of Commons formed a single Parliamentary party, and they continuously represented South Antrim.
In 1951, it was one of the last four seats to be uncontested in a British general election. In the1979 general election,James Molyneaux had the largest majority of any MP in the entire of the United Kingdom, helped also by having one of the largest electorates.
The boundary changes in 1983 reduced the Ulster Unionist vote somewhat, with a significant portion now contained in the newLagan Valley (which Molyneaux then contested) but the constituency still gave strong results for the party.
However, in April 2000 the Ulster Unionist incumbent,Clifford Forsythe, died suddenly. Theensuing by-election took place amidst a fierce political struggle between theUlster Unionist Party and theDemocratic Unionist Party over theGood Friday Agreement, an agreement that the UUP were themselves split over. The DUP had not contested the seat at the previous general election but on this occasion stoodWilliam McCrea, the former MP forMid Ulster, who campaigned strongly on the DUP's refusal to co-operate withSinn Féin in the absence of arms decommissioning by theIRA. The local UUP branch selectedDavid Burnside to contest the seat who declared that he had supported the Good Friday Agreement at the time that it was signed but had since become disillusioned with its implementation. As a result, many commentators predicted that whatever the outcome of the election it was a severe blow for the UUP's leaderDavid Trimble. On a low turnout amidst a fierce contest McCrea narrowly won the seat.
Burnside was nominated again to contest the seat in the2001 general election in which he overturned McCrea's majority, aided by tactical voting by SDLP and Alliance voters. However the DUP were eager to regain the seat and in the2003 Assembly election they outpolled the UUP by 298 votes. In the2005 general election McCrea defeated Burnside in their third contest, but with a noticeably lower swing than those garnered by other DUP candidates who ousted UUP MPs. McCrea held the seat in the2010 general election with a reduced majority. The seat was won by the UUP at the2015 general election following the defeat of McCrea by Danny Kinahan. The DUP regained the seat following the2017 general election with the defeat of Kinahan by Paul Girvan. Girvan would hold the seat until2024, whenRobin Swann, a former Health Minister who led Northern Ireland's response to theCOVID-19 pandemic, retook the seat for the UUP on a 12.3% swing, giving them a seat in the Commons for the first time in 7 years.
From 1885, this constituency was one of four county divisions of the formerAntrim constituency. It comprised the baronies of Massereene Upper, Massereene Lower, that part of the barony Antrim Upper in the parish of Antrim, that part of the barony ofToome Upper not in the constituency ofMid Antrim, that part of the barony of Belfast Upper not in the constituency ofEast Antrim, and so much of the parliamentary borough of Belfast as was in the County of Antrim. It returned one Member of Parliament. In 1922, it was merged into a new Antrim constituency.
The seat was re-created in 1950 when the old Antrim two MP constituency was abolished as part of the final move to single-seat constituencies. The seat was reduced in size for the 1974 general election, with the town ofCarrickfergus and the areas between it andLarne town transferred toNorth Antrim. Additionally some territory was transferred toBelfast West.[1] Despite these changes, the seat had become the largest in the entire United Kingdom by the time of the Northern Ireland Assembly elections of 1982, by which time its electorate had passed the 131,000 mark.[2] For the1983 general election Northern Ireland received new seats. Consequently, South Antrim was significantly reduced, losing a lot of territory to the new seats ofEast Antrim andLagan Valley as well as minor sections to Belfast West, Belfast North and Upper Bann. The new South Antrim which was fought for the 1983 election contained only 43% of the previous seat.[3] In 1995 there were minor changes around the borders withNorth Belfast andWest Belfast. The seat fought at the 2005 election encompassed the entirety of the district ofAntrim and part of the district ofNewtownabbey.
Following consultation of boundary changes across Northern Ireland, the altered South Antrim constituency fought at the2010 general election is made up as follows:[4]
Glenavy from Lisburn City government area
Ballyclare North, Ballyclare South, Ballyduff, Ballynure, Ballyrobert, Burnthill, Carnmoney, Doagh, Hawthorne, Mallusk, and Mossley, from Newtownabbey
