Sinn Féin becomes largest Northern Ireland party in UK parliament

By Amanda Ferguson

Sinn Féin became Northern Ireland's largest party in the British parliament for the first time on Friday, capitalising on a poor election for its main unionist rival.

With 17 of the 18 seats declared, the party had retained the seven seats won at the last election. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) were second on four seats and cannot catch Sinn Féin.

That was down on the eight seats the DUP won in 2019 and the losses included Ian Paisley Jr, the son of former Northern Ireland First Minister and party founder Ian Paisley. The father and son had held a seat at Westminster since 1970.

The DUP, the largest pro-British party in Northern Ireland, fought the election just three months after the shock resignation of then leader Jeffrey Donaldson after he was charged over historical sex offences.

Sinn Féin's victory marked an electoral clean sweep for the party, which in 2022 became the first nationalist party to win the most seats at the Stormont assembly since Northern Ireland's creation in 1921, and won at local council polls a year later.

It also took over as Northern Ireland's largest party in Westminster despite its long-standing policy of not taking up its seats there.