South Antrim: Robin Swann victorious but DUP pledge to fight back

​Brimming with smiles and hugging seemingly everyone in sight, he was greeted with cheers from supporters.

That was in the early hours of Friday morning, and when asked by the News Letter if this apparent jubilation meant he had won, the former UUP leader would only say that “there’s been no announcement” but “the omens are looking good”.

Indeed they were.

By the time the night was over it had become clear that Mr Swann had effectively drawn double the vote of the previous office-holder, the DUP’s Paul Girvan.

After announcing the results at about 6am, Mr Swann took to the stage and began “as the member of Parliament for South Antrim ...” drawing a huge whoop from his crowd of backers, delighted that the party had won a Westminster seat again for the first time since 2015.

Mr Swann thanked all the count centre staff involved in Magherafelt’s Meadowbank leisure centre, his family, “and the other candidates of South Antrim who I believe fought a clean and honourable campaign over the last few weeks”.

He continued: “Can I also thank Paul for his tenure of South Antrim during the past seven years?

“I also want to especially thank the electorate of South Antrim who have placed their faith and confidence and trust in me to be their member of Parliament.

“When we went the length and breadth of South Antrim and engaged with the people in regards to the issues that were important to them at a local level, a national level, and an international level, it was clear that they were looking change.

“And I want to thank my party – the Ulster Unionist Party – for putting their faith in me and putting me forward as their elected representative.”

He added that having MPs from a plurality of parties was a strength, saying “I believe Northern Ireland will be best served when we do have that mixture of voices in Westminster”.

Then in a dig at Sinn Fein he said he was referring to those “who actually take their seat and speak on behalf of all the people of Northern Ireland”.

In the 2019 election, the results among the three main non-nationalist challengers in South Antrim were as follows:

DUP: 35.3% (Paul Girvan)

UUP: 29% (Danny Kinahan)

Alliance: 19.1% (John Blair)

This time it was as follows:

UUP: 38%

DUP: 20.5%

Alliance: 10.7% (a sharp drop which will be a bitter pill for the Alliance’s Mr Blair).

Mel Lucas, who left to join the TUV sometime prior to 2011 and briefly served as a councillor in Antrim for the DUP from 2005 to 2011, pulled in 6.3% of the vote (the TUV did not stand in the 2019 election, so no direct comparison there is possible).

SOUTH ANTRIM

Robin Swann (UUP) 16,311

Paul Girvan (DUP) 8,799

Declan Kearney (SF) 8,034

John Blair (All) 4,574

Mel Lucas (TUV) 2,693

Roisin Lynch (SDLP) 1,589

Lesley Veronica (Green) 541

Siobhan McErlean (Aontu) 367

Turnout: 55.92%