Opinion

Tom Kelly: SDLP the real winners in this election

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly is an Irish News columnist with a background in politics and public relations. He is also a former member of the Policing Board.

A jubilant Colum Eastwood celebrated a landslide victory in Foyle. PICTURE: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press.
A jubilant Colum Eastwood celebrated a landslide victory in Foyle. PICTURE: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press. A jubilant Colum Eastwood celebrated a landslide victory in Foyle. PICTURE: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press.

The elections are over and Boris Johnson will be able to form what he calls a ‘one nation’ Conservative government.

The only problem is that Johnson has not acted anything like a ‘one nation’ Tory since he took over, having purged the party of its grandees and liberals.

All that said, the Conservatives (many with slim majorities) now represent decades old Labour seats in the heart of the working class midlands and the north of England. These first time MPs will have to bed down in their new constituencies and therefore with welfare dependent and older electorates they may force Johnson away from any radical Thatcher-like polices preferred by his right wing chums like Raab, Duncan Smith and Patel.

The Labour Party will have to do some serious soul searching.

Corbyn turned off the traditional Labour voter. He was the top issue for many stalwart Labour voters who switched to the Conservatives. Voting Tory is almost an inconceivable concept for this writer and clearly most voters in Northern Ireland agree. It seems that most would rather stab themselves in the eye with a fork than vote Conservative. Therefore it is hard to imagine former mining communities devastated by Thatcher now switching to embrace Boris and his Bullingdon boys. But switch they did.

Corbyn may enthuse the young urbanites in London but the thought of his premiership sent shock waves through older voters. Plus this election was ultimately about Brexit and for a weary English electorate ‘getting Brexit done’.

Labour has now lost four general elections in a row and in each one they moved further left. It’s a tactic that simply does not work. Even the infamous Beast of Bolsover, Dennis Skinner, lost his seat to a Tory - though at 87 he clearly held on too long.

A perennial thorn for both Mrs May and now Mr Johnson is the Scottish Nationalist Party. It is hard to have a one nation approach when your electoral writ does not cover the whole of the UK. Labour were almost wiped out in Scotland, reduced to one solitary MP. With Scotland now a swathe of tartan a constitutional crisis is almost inevitable.

And of course, there is Northern Ireland. Both large parties took a hit. Voting percentages count for little in elections as it is bums on seats that matter. The DUP took the most visible knock with the loss of South and North Belfast to nationalists and a near miss in East Belfast to the Alliance party. Sinn Fein have claimed the scalp of Nigel Dodds which whilst newsworthy masked a significant drop in their vote across Northern Ireland. Mr Finucane as a busy Lord Mayor and now an MP will have to ensure he is never far from a convenience again!

The good people of North Down remain too discerning to have a DUP MP and therefore Stephen Farry of Alliance deprived Arlene Foster of any compensation for losses elsewhere. Whether acknowledged or not, the margin of victory was no doubt helped by the Greens, SDLP and Sinn Féin stepping aside.

The DUP were lucky not to have lost all seats in Belfast. Gavin Robinson clung on to save some blushes. The Ulster Unionists were all at sea during this election with Submariner Steve.

Michelle Gildernew of Sinn Féin must have a miraculous medal glued to her as she managed to see off a pan-unionist pact by a margin of just 57 votes.

The real winner of this general election in Northern Ireland was the SDLP. The sheer magnitude of the majorities in Foyle and South Belfast were staggering. No one predicted such landslides. Eastwood and Hanna both epitomise centrist politicians and have given the SDLP a much needed lift.

The past four weeks have been divisive and bitter. Politics needs to recalibrate. There should be no rush to find fast solutions. We need lasting ones.