United Kingdom general election, 2015 (Northern Ireland)

United Kingdom general election, 2015 (Northern Ireland)

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All 18 seats in Northern Ireland to the House of Commons
First party Second party   Leader Peter Robinson Gerry Adams Party DUP Sinn Féin Leader since 31 May 2008 13 November 1983 Leader's seat Did not stand Did not stand Last election 8 seats, 25.0% 5 seats, 25.5% Seats won 8 4 Seat change 1 Popular vote 184,260 176,232 Percentage 25.7% 24.5% Swing 0.7% 1.0%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Alasdair McDonnell Mike Nesbitt Party SDLP UUP Leader since 5 November 2011 31 March 2012 Leader's seat Belfast South Did not stand Last election 3 seats, 16.5% 0 seats, 15.2% Seats won 3 2 Seat change 2 Popular vote 99,809 114,935 Percentage 13.9% 16.0% Swing 2.6% 0.8%
Colours on map indicate winning party for each constituency.

The 2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 7 May 2015 and all 18 seats were contested.

A political debate was held between the leaders of the five main parties in Northern Ireland: the Democratic Unionist Party, Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionist Party, Social Democratic and Labour Party and Alliance Party of Northern Ireland as part of BBC Newsnight on 16 April 2015.

Northern Ireland returned eighteen members of parliament to House of Commons, one for each of its 18 parliamentary constituencies.

In total, three seats changed hands in Northern Ireland – Belfast East, Fermanagh and South Tyrone and South Antrim.

Prior to the election, the two main unionist parties – the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) – had agreed not to stand against each other in certain seats. The DUP stood aside in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, and in Newry and Armagh, while the UUP did not contest Belfast East and Belfast North.

The DUP retained their position as the largest unionist party, and also overtook Sinn Féin to once again poll the largest number of votes in Northern Ireland (they had last achieved this in 2005, with Sinn Féin taking the top position in 2010). The DUP succeeded in re-taking one of the unionist pact seats – Belfast East – which party leader Peter Robinson had lost to the Alliance Party's Naomi Long in 2010. Gavin Robinson (no relation to Peter) won the seat with a majority of over 2,500 votes. Elsewhere, the DUP retained Belfast North where the UUP had also stood aside, as well as East Antrim, East Londonderry, Lagan Valley, North Antrim, Strangford and Upper Bann.