'We’re very happy' - Derry Westminster candidate Colum Eastwood on SDLP performance and Labour's landslide

Arriving at the count centre in Magherafelt in the early hours of Friday morning, Mr Eastwood – who is hoping to retain the Foyle MP seat he has occupied for the past five years - was in a positive mood.

He told waiting media that if you’d told him a year ago the party was in very good shape to retain two seats, “I wouldn’t have trusted you”.

Turnout in Foyle for the Westminster election was 52.74% compared to 63.4% back in 2019. The total number of votes cast on Thursday in Foyle was 38,765 of 73,496 people eligible.

Mr Eastwood said: "We fought a very good campaign and I think there was a fairly reduced turnout, particularly in my own constituency. I think we fared well. We’re very happy. A few nights ago we were on 6%, we’re not on 6% today.”

He also welcomed the changing of the guard at Westminster and vowed that politicians from the north will hold Labour to account for promises made.

"I think it’s great news. The Tory Party have been in power in London for 14 years and they have absolutely decimated public services, they have destroyed the economy and they have ruined people’s household finances. I think people have just had enough of them.

"Now it seems we have a very strong Labour government coming but more importantly people here will have their voice in Westminster. They have made promises to the people of Northern Ireland and we intend to hold them to it.”

Mr Eastwood told the Journal the cost of living crisis and health were priorities identified for people on the doorsteps across Derry during the campaign.

"People are very frustrated that the economy isn’t working, that we haven’t built on the prospects and opportunities of the Good Friday Agreement,” he said.

"They are also very worried about the health service, when it takes six years to get a diagnosis in the Western Trust for Alzheimers, when so many of our population are on waiting lists, they want action on that. They want action on that, and they also want somebody to go to Westminster and speak up for them. They don’t want to be voiceless.

“Remember people in Northern Ireland were denied their voice for 50 years and people had to march on the streets and get beaten off the streets to have their voices heard. They are not going to be silenced again.

Colum Eastwood was elected Leader of the SDLP in November 2015 and was elected MP for Foyle in 2019, taking the seat back for the SDLP from Sinn Fein’s Elisha McCallion with a massive majority.

He was previously a Derry City Councillor from 2005 until 2011, and in 2010 became Derry’s youngest ever Mayor at the age of 27.