Northern Ireland

Claire Hanna confirms she will contest Belfast South and Mid-Down Westminster seat

Claire Hanna (Liam McBurney/PA)
Claire Hanna. PICTURE: LIAM MCBURNEY/PA
By Staff Reporter

Sitting SDLP MP Claire Hanna has confirmed that she will contest the Belfast South and Mid Down seat in the forthcoming Westminster election.

She won the South Belfast seat in 2019 with a 15,401 majority, unseating the DUP’s Emma Little-Pengelly with help from Sinn Féin and the Greens, who both stepped aside.

The DUP's Emma Little-Pengelly. Picture by Kelvin Boyes
Former South Belfast MP Emma Little-Pengelly. PICTURE: KELVIN BOYES

Boundary changes introduced last year have seen the constituency renamed Belfast South and Mid Down and redrawn to include Saintfield, Drumbo and Moneyreagh.

Ms Hanna said the next general election provided an “unmissable opportunity to get rid of the Tories and use our influence with a new, Labour government to give us the tools to make this an even better place to live”.

“This place has the most wonderful sense of what it means to be a community - whether Saintfield or Stranmillis, Botanic or Belvoir, we know what it means to come together on the things that matter to us all,” she said.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said: “Claire has been a compassionate and courageous voice for South Belfast over the past four years and an MP that her constituents have been proud of.