Antrim & Newtownabbey: WATCH - Cheers as the DUP's first openly-gay politician Alison Bennington storms home to re-take seat comfortably

To cheers and hugs from party colleagues, including traditionalist-inclined Christian MP Paul Girvan, Alison Bennington was declared the first council seat winner in the Glengormley area.

She breezed past the quota of 1,096 with ease, coming in with 1,432 first-preference votes.

The only other person elected in the first round was Sinn Fein’s Eamonn McLaughlin with 1,280.

Meanwhile Paula Bradley, the former deputy leader of the DUP, took 825 votes.

Councillor Bennington’s victory is a massive consolidation of her position.

In 2019, it was Phillip Brett of the DUP (now an MLA) who topped the poll in Glengormley with 1,099 first preference votes, with councillor Bennington coming in with 856.

Councillor Bennington has declined to discuss her sexuality in the last four years since she was elected.

In 2019, she told the Irish News: “I am delighted to have been selected as a DUP council candidate.

"I am putting myself before the electorate based on what I can deliver for them as a councillor working alongside a strong team of colleagues, not based on my sexual orientation.”

Asked ahead of the 2023 vote if it had been an issue on the doorsteps, she had told the News Letter: "None at all. I was at a door the other night, and the party was called 'homophobes' and 'bigots' and I thought: You're speaking to the wrong person."

More from this reporter:

• 'IRA are ghastly murderous thugs and we must remember that - starting with Gerry Adams'

• The 'Northern Irish Elon Musk' adds best part of £1 billion to his wealth as he tops the Ulster names on the 2023 Rich List

• What is in Ireland's new so-called 'thought crime' bill, how many years in jail can you get, and which parties are backing it?

• Ex-nuclear submarine commander dubs Irish government 'freeloaders' over lack of military power and dependence on UK and NATO

• Detectives trying to solve attempted murder of John Caldwell now have 16,667 days'-worth of CCTV footage

• Peter Brooke: Death of former Northern Ireland Secretary who coined phrase 'Britain has no selfish or strategic interest in NI' and believed IRA was unlikely to be beaten by force

• Brexit: Entirety of UK will have 'not for EU' printed on goods as James Cleverly insists 'Northern Ireland is as much part of UK as north Essex'