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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Brendan Hughes

Belfast constituency to be renamed and enlarged under Northern Ireland election boundary changes

A Belfast constituency is to be renamed and made bigger under plans for boundary changes in future parliamentary elections.

'Belfast South' will become 'Belfast South and Mid Down' as the constituency is extended to include parts of Lagan Valley and Strangford.

Northern Ireland will continue to have 18 parliamentary constituencies under the final recommendations by the Boundary Commission.

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The plans have been published following a series of public consultations which began in 2021.

The new Belfast South and Mid Down constituency will have an electorate of 71,978 people - an increase on the 70,134 in the existing Belfast South constituency.

Other boundary changes to constituencies include East Antrim, which will take in swathes of neighbouring North Antrim.

Foyle will be reduced in size, with parts of the current constituency moving into West Tyrone and East Londonderry.

The electorate for Foyle will fall from 74,431 to 69,890 under the recommendations.

The new boundaries look set to be in place before the next Westminster election, which is currently expected to be held in 2024.

Mr Justice Michael Humphreys, deputy chairman of the Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland, said: "I am pleased to announce the publication of the Commission's Final Recommendations Report today.

"The Commission is grateful to all those individuals and organisations who made representations to us, both in writing and at the public hearings, during the extensive 2023 Boundary Review consultation process."

The Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland is an independent public body responsible for reviewing UK parliamentary constituency boundaries in the region.

Its final recommendations report was submitted to the Speaker of the House of Commons, who has now laid before Parliament the reports from all four UK Boundary Commissions.

The UK Government must submit a draft of an Order in Council giving effect to the recommendations in the reports within four months.

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