The fall of the House of Paisley is just one in a number of shock election results

As the dust settles on what has been a seismic election across the UK, the people of Northern Ireland have woken up to a new political dawn with the fall of the House of Paisley in North Antrim.

The seat which has been held by Ian Paisley and his father before him since 1970 is now in the hands of the TUV leader Jim Allister. With only 450 votes separating Mr Allister from Mr Paisley, this came as a shock to many across the country, including to some of those within the TUV, especially as Ian Paisley managed to survive the first recall petition in the history of the UK parliament after he was suspended from the Commons in 2018 following an undeclared trip to Sri Lanka.

Elsewhere in North Antrim, Sinn Féin managed to grow their percentage of the vote share by 5.85 per cent while the UUP, SDLP and Alliance saw their share of the vote drop.

Read more: LIVE: Bruising election for the DUP as it loses two key seats - including one huge shock

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There is no doubt that this has been a disastrous election for the DUP with their vote falling by 8.65 per cent on 2019.

Party stalwart Gregory Campbell managed to hold on to his seat in East Londonderry by just 179 votes to Sinn Féin in what was an unprecedented result for the party. The party managed to grow their vote in South Down and Upper Bann where sitting MP Carla Lockhart managed to grow her percentage of the vote by 4.47 per cent.

Another change on the night came in North Down as the Alliance Party’s deputy leader Stephen Farry lost his seat to the independent candidate Alex Easton. From the outset, this looked like it would be a tight contest and as the boxes opened, party sources were telling me that it was too close to call. However, it soon became clear that former DUP man Easton was well ahead and won the seat by 16.81 per cent.

The Alliance Party have benefitted in the past from a surge in support which had seen them increase their number of MLAs and councillors at recent elections. However, this growth in support has tended to come when they have capitalised on the Assembly being down. With Stormont back up and running, it will be interesting to see how this impacts on the party in future elections.

In South Antrim, former Health Minister Robin Swann secured a return to the Commons for the UUP who have been without an MP since 2017. While Mr Swann had been tipped to take the seat from Paul Girvan, the size of his majority, at 17.43 per cent perhaps wasn’t expected.

The other story of the night in South Antrim came from the growth in support for Sinn Féin, who were only 765 votes off second place. The party were 2,657 votes behind the DUP at the last Assembly election in the constituency and if a result like this was to be replicated in the 2027 Assembly Election, they could potentially take a second seat in the constituency.

Alliance’s Sorcha Eastwood surprised some by becoming the first female and first non-unionist MP in Lagan Valley. Ms Eastwood, who has continued to garner support in the constituency held by former DUP leader Sir Jeffery Donaldson who stood down earlier this year following allegations of historical sexual assault and rape which he denies.

This constituency has historically been a unionist stronghold and Sorcha managed a 6.01 per cent majority.

In Belfast North, Sinn Féin’s John Finucane comfortably secured a second term as the MP in the seat formally held by the DUP’s Nigel Dodds. Back in 2019 he became the first nationalist MP for the area and with a majority of 13.78 per cent and a reduction in the DUP’s vote by 13.5 per cent, this looks to be a safe Sinn Féin seat in future elections.

The same can be said for Fermanagh South Tyrone where Sinn Féin’s Pat Cullen managed to grow the party’s share of the vote by 5.09 per cent. The former head of the RCN was 8.9 per cent ahead of the UUP’s Diana Armstrong, who was the only unionist candidate on the ballot. That was despite Ms Cullen facing challenges from the SDLP and Aontú. In total, nationalist parties achieved 54.07 per cent in the constituency which was formally held by Hunger Striker Bobby Sands.

Sinn Féin have scored the hat-trick becoming the largest party in Northern Ireland at Westminster, Stormont and local government following this election. The party have grown their support in all but two constituencies where they saw their percentage of the vote fall in Belfast West by 1.28 per cent and Belfast North by 3.72 per cent.

For the SDLP, it has been yet another disastrous election. The party saw their overall share of the vote fall by 3.82 per cent. The party lost support across the board with only Paul Doherty in Belfast West managing to increase his percentage of the vote. Party leader Colum Eastwood was returned as the MP for Foyle despite seeing his vote fall by 16.64 per cent meanwhile, Claire Hanna managed to hang on with her vote share falling by 8.42 per cent.

Looking at the constitutional question, nationalism managed to pull 40.01 per cent to unionism’s 42.99 per cent and others on 17 per cent. This is again proof if we need it that Northern Ireland is heading towards a 40/40/20 split on the future constitutional position of the island.

Northern Ireland now has seven new faces at Westminster and as they make their way across the water in the coming days, how they find their feet on the green benches of the House of Commons or the corridors of Portcullis House remains to be seen.

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