SDLP ‘revival’ in Foyle as Colum Eastwood unseats Sinn Fein’s Elisha McCallion

Mr Eastwood outpolled his nearest rival, Sinn Fein incumbent Elisha McCallion, by more than two-votes-to-one to regain SDLP dominance in its traditional heartland in Londonderry.

Mr Eastwood admitted his surprise at the crushing nature of his victory — his final tally of 26,881 was over 17,000 more than that of his nearest rival Elisha McCallion.

“Obviously we are surprised by the margin but we had a very good response across the whole campaign, so we knew we were doing very well,” he told the News Letter.

“But you never expect that. It’s the biggest vote and the biggest margin that anyone has ever got in Foyle.”

The expectation going into the election had been for a close-fought battle, with Mr Eastwood’s decision to put himself forward as the candidate widely viewed as a risky move.

His party had won the Foyle seat in every Westminster election since the creation of the constituency in the early 1980s — until the shock result in 2017 when Elisha McCallion pipped Mark Durkan to the post by a razor-thin 169 votes.

But Ms McCallion’s vote has collapsed — almost halving from 18,256 in 2017 to just 9,771 this time.

In defeat, she admitted the victory by Colum Eastwood was “mighty impressive” but insisted “this isn’t the last of Elisha McCallion”.

Throughout his campaign, Mr Eastwood had stressed three key messages — opposition to Brexit, to Boris Johnson and the need to “get back to work” at both Westminster and Stormont.

He repeated those messages again in the freezing cold count centre in Magherafelt, emphasising the crisis in the health service as a key contributor to his success.

“We are hearing on the ground that people want not only a voice around Brexit and a voice in Westminster, but also for politicians to get back to work and fix the health service,” he told media upon his arrival at the Meadowbank Sports Arena.

“All we have heard over the last six weeks is that people are so frustrated with the lack of government, anywhere.”

On the unionist side, DUP candidate Gary Middleton’s vote dipped from 7,398 in 2017 to 4,773 this time.

But there was no unionist competition in 2017 whereas UUP candidate Darren Guy polled 1,088.

But with the overall unionist share of the vote down, Mr Middleton believes tactical voting to prevent another Sinn Fein victory might have been a factor.

“There’s no doubt that there’s an element of that,” he told the News Letter.

“There is no doubt that there are those within uninoism who would rather have an SDLP member of parliament than a Sinn Fein member of parliament. But for us it was about keeping that core vote in place.”

He continued: “I think the main message here is that people want someone to take their seat, and the main thing we have been getting on the doors is that people want Stormont back.”