'There is work to be done immediately' : SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood retains seat in Foyle with comfortable majority

And the SDLP Leader, whose colleague Claire Hannah also retained her seat in South Belfast, vowed to waste no time in holding the new Labour account to promises it made to repeal the widely reviled Legacy Act, and to intervene to alleviate the crisis in the health service here.

He said the SDLP had developed a good relationship and strong ties with the Labour Party at Westminster and indeed Keir Starmer, although they disagreed on various issues including Gaza.

"We haven’t been behind the door in making our position around that clear. We will use our influence to hold them to account and most importantly we will be the voice of sanity in Westminster Parliament.”

Turnout in Derry this time round stood at 52.74%, down significantly on the previous Westminster election in 2019 when almost two thirds - 63.4% – of eligible voters made the trip to the polls. But the low turnout this time round had little bearing on the outcome.

Mr Eastwood received 15,647 of the 38,765 ballots cast in Derry on Thursday, with first time challenger, Sinn Féin Councillor Sandra Duffy coming in in second place with a respectable 11,481 votes.

They were followed by the DUP’s Gary Middleton on 3,915 votes and Shaun Harkin, People Before Profit with 2,444 votes.

The rest of the vote share went to Independent candidate Anne McCloskey who achieved 1,519 votes while 1,422 marked an X beside UUP candidate Janice Montgomery’s name. Alliance candidate Rachael Ferguson’s vote tally was 1,268 and Aontú’s John Boyle managed 662 votes.

Speaking after the declaration of the Foyle results, Mr Eastwood said: “The people of Derry have made it clear they want their voices heard in Westminster so it is important that we are there.

"There is work to be done immediately. We have to get the Labour government now to scrap the Legacy Act, recognise the state of Palestine and we have got to get them to properly fund our public services to people can get access to health services a lot quicker than they can now. It’s an absolute disgrace people can’t get access to the health service and that needs addressed immediately.

"We will be there to hold their feet to the fire and one of things we are good at is shouting loudly.”

The count turned out to be a bad night for the DUP, with the party losing votes and seats in various constituencies and veteran MP Gregory Campbell only narrowly defeating the Sinn Féin candidate in East Derry, and Mr Eastwood said the electorate had sent the unionist part y a clear message.

"I think that people have rejected the DUP in fairly large numbers. They looked at the mess around Brexit, the state we had been left in and all the work that had to be done to fix all that,” he said.

Mr Eastwood said there had been a “very solid gap” between the vote for the SDLP and that for Sinn Fein in this election.

"Remember only a year ago in the Council elections in Derry Sinn Féin were 5,000 votes ahead of us. I think it’s a huge vote for the SDLP.

"We don’t take anything for granted. This was a very low turnout. I think the issue was a lot of people thought it was a done deal.”

Mr Eastwood said he hoped the end of Tory Rule and the ushering in of a new Labour government would mean “an end to the chaos, public services hopefully soon getting put back in some better order and most importantly I hope it means a reframing of the relationship between Dublin and London which has been destroyed by successive Tory governments."

When asked if he felt the Westminster election results across these islands could provide the basis “After 14 years of the Tories wrecking the place I think people have sent a clear signal that they don’t want that to happen any more. Now that’s a huge burden on Keir Starmer that he will have to live up to, but all I can do is promise that the people of South Belfast and of Foyle will have two very loud voices in that place on all the issues we have talked about.”

While it was a bad night for the DUP, who lost three seats, it proved to be another outstanding performance for Sinn Féin who emerged as the biggest party from the north in Westminster, winning seven of the 18 seats across the north.

Party leader Mary Lou McDonald and First Minister Michelle O’Neill spent almost the entire count in Magherafelt where they cheered on their newly elected MPs from various constituencies. Among those deemed elected was Órfhlaith Begley who was returned with a huge majority in West Tyrone.

Mary Lou McDonald also said that Labour’s victory now presented a major opportunity to improve relations between Dublin and London.

"There is a moment now for a reset in terms of relationships between Ireland and Britain, Dublin and London. We very much hope there will be a step change and I very much look forward to that,”Ms. McDonald

"There are big issues on the direct horizon. I am thinking of the Legacy legislation, I’m thinking about our wider relationships, charting a course for the future, our collective relationships with the European Union. These are big questions and I hope the new government under the Labour leadership of Keir Starmer will come and be constructive He has a huge, huge mandate,” she said.

And in his acceptance speech, long-standing East Derry MLA Gregory Campbell in a ponderous address somewhat summed up the historic night as he spoke of providing hope for generations to come 30 years on from the peace process.