“They kept the best to last,” Sinn Féin’s Paul Maskey joked as the result of his constituency was the final one of six to be declared at the Titanic Convention Centre in Belfast on Friday morning, “and quite clearly West Belfast is the best.”
That is certainly the case for Sinn Féin; if ever the party had a safe seat, it was Belfast West.
As outgoing MP, Maskey was defending a majority of just under 15,000 votes, and was returned with a similar tally, this time of just under 16,000.
That concealed a drop in his vote share – from 59 per cent in 2019 to 53 per cent this time around – but, given that it is still over 50 per cent, it will give little cause for concern.
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Perhaps more concerned will be People Before Profit’s only MLA, Gerry Carroll, and DUP councillor and former Lord Mayor of Belfast, Frank McCoubrey, who both saw their vote share decline, from 16 to 13 per cent and 13.5 to 11 per cent respectively.
This was due to the presence of the SDLP and the TUV on the ballot – absent in 2019 – who attracted votes that might otherwise have gone to, again respectively, Carroll and McCoubrey.
Immaterial in a Westminster election, perhaps, but certainly disheartening for candidates who had hoped to use this poll to build support with a view to the next Assembly vote.
The MP for Belfast West since 2011, Maskey vowed to continue fighting for his constituency, which he said was “going one way – and it’s going up.”
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