1970 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland
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On 18 June 1970, the 1970 United Kingdom general election was held in Northern Ireland, to elect all 630 members of the House of Commons, including the 12 Northern Ireland seats. It was the first general election held after the Representation of the People Act 1969 which reduced the voting age from 21 to 18.
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18 June 1970
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All 12 Northern Ireland seats in the House of Commons | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 76.6% ( 10.5 pp) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Ulster Unionists lost seats to the Protestant Unionist Party led by Ian Paisley, moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, and to Unity, a nationalist organisation which had won a by-election in 1969.
In the election as a whole, the Labour Party failed to return to government and the Conservative Party, which included the Ulster Unionists, formed a government led by Edward Heath as Prime Minister. This was the last parliament where the UUP took the Conservative whip in the House of Commons, breaking with them after the Parliament of Northern Ireland was suspended by the Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972.
Candidates
| Affiliation | Candidates | |
|---|---|---|
| Ulster Unionist Party | 12 | |
| Northern Ireland Labour Party | 6 | |
| Unity | 5 | |
| Ulster Liberal Party | 4 | |
| Independent Labour | 3 | |
| Independent | 3 | |
| Protestant Unionist Party | 2 | |
| National Democratic Party | 2 | |
| Republican Labour Party | 1 | |
| Independent Unionist | 1 | |
| Total | 40 | |
Results
| Party[1][2][3] | Seats | Aggregate Votes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Gains | Losses | Net | Of all (%) | Total | Of all (%) | Difference | ||
| UUP | 8 | 0 | 3 |  3 | 66.7 | 422,041 | 54.2 | 7.6 | |
| Unity | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 16.7 | 140,930 | 18.1 | 15.6 | |
| Protestant Unionist | 1 | New | 1 | 8.3 | 35,303 | 4.5 | New | ||
| Republican Labour | 1 | 0 | 0 |  | 8.3 | 30,649 | 3.9 | 0.5 | |
| NI Labour | 0 | 0 | 0 | | — | 98,194 | 12.6 | 0.4 | |
| Ind. Unionist | 0 | Did not stand in 1966 | — | 17,787 | 2.3 | N/a | |||
| Ulster Liberal | 0 | 0 | 0 | | — | 10,929 | 1.4 | 3.5 | |
| National Democratic | 0 | New | — | 10,349 | 1.3 | New | |||
| Independent Labour | 0 | Did not stand in 1966 | — | 7,565 | 1.0 | N/a | |||
| Independent | 0 | Did not stand in 1966 | — | 4,290 | 0.4 | N/a | |||
| Total | 12 | 779,113 | 76.6[4] | 10.5 | |||||
MPs elected
Notes
- Devlin initially won the seat in a by-election in 1969 after the death of UUP Member of Parliament George Forrest as a member of Unity. Unity was the label for a series of electoral pacts by nationalist, republican and socialist candidates. Devlin was therefore the organisation's only MP prior, and her retaining the seat represented a gain since 1966.
