6am: Thank you for following our coverage into the early hours of Friday morning. Full election reaction to come on www.belfastmedia.com throughout the day.
5.54am: That concludes the count for the four Belfast seats in the 2024 General Election. The MPs elected are:
Belfast West: Paul Maskey (Sinn Féin)
Belfast North: John Finucane (Sinn Féin)
Belfast South: Claire Hanna (SDLP)
Belfast East: Gavin Robinson (DUP)
5.45am: You can watch the full Belfast West declaration and acceptance speech from Paul Maskey below:
5.43am: Belfast West: Sinn Féin's Paul Maskey retains his seat with 21,009 votes. His vote goes up from 20,866 in 2019.
Full result:
Gerry Carroll (People Before Profit) 5,048
Paul Doherty (SDLP) 4,318
Gerard Herdman (Aontú) 904
Ash Jones (Green Party) 451
Tony Mallon (Independent) 161
Paul Maskey (Sinn Féin) 21,009
Ann McClure (TUV) 2,010
Frank McCoubrey (DUP) 4,304
Eoin Millar (Alliance) 1,077
Ben Sharkey (UUP) 461
5.39am: Belfast East: DUP leader Gavin Robinson retains his seat ahead of Alliance leader Naomi Long by 2,676 votes.
Full result:
Séamas de Faoite (SDLP) 619
Naomi Long (Alliance) 17,218
Ryan North (Independent) 162
Gavin Robinson (DUP) 19,894
John Ross (TUV) 1,918
Brian Smyth (Green Party) 1,077
Ryan Warren (UUP) 1,818
4.56am: Belfast South and Mid Down full result:
Dan Boucher (TUV) 2,218
Aine Groogan (Green Party) 1,577
Claire Hanna (SDLP) 21,345
Michael Henderson (UUP) 2,653
Tracy Kelly (DUP) 6,859
Kate Nicholl (Alliance) 8,839
4.51am: Belfast South and Mid Down: Claire Hanna (SDLP) has been elected in Belfast South and Mid Down with 21,345 votes – a majority of 12,506.
4.38am: Belfast North: John Finucane (Sinn Féin) is re-elected as MP with 17,674 votes. DUP's Phillip Brett next with 12,062 votes. John Finucane's majority was 1,943 in 2019. It has increased to 5,612.
Full result:
Phillip Brett (DUP) 12,062
David Clarke (TUV) 2,877
Fiona Ferguson (PBP) 946
John Finucane (Sinn Féin) 17,674
Nuala McAllister (Alliance) 4,274
Mal O'Hara (Green Party) 1,206
Carl Whyte (SDLP) 1,413
You can watch the full declaration and acceptance speech from John Finucane below:
3.57am: Belfast East: With bundles piled up, it looks like DUP leader Gavin Robinson has more than Alliance leader Naomi Long.
3.10am: Belfast West: Eligible electorate: 75,346. Total votes polled: 40,003. Turn-out- 53.09 per cent – down from 59.1 per cent in 2019.
3am: SDLP's Claire Hanna arrives at the count. She is expected to be comfortably re-elected in South Belfast.
SDLP @ClaireHanna arrives at the count- she is expected to be comfortably re-elected in South Belfast. https://t.co/2L9VjEjFQF pic.twitter.com/pxs66xpKev
— South Belfast News (@SBelfast_News) July 5, 2024
2.10am: Belfast North: Eligible electorate 74,240; total votes polled 40,745; turn-out 54.88 per cent – down from 67.9 per cent in 2019.
1am: SDLP looking comfortable with Claire Hanna in Belfast South and Mid Down.
In Belfast North, John Finucane looks safe to retain his seat for Sinn Féin.
00.45am: Gerry Carroll (PBP) and Paul Doherty (SDLP) nip and tuck for second place in Belfast West, we're hearing.
00.35am: Not scientific by any means but in North Down Easton (Ind Unionist) appears to be polling slightly better than Farry (Alliance), and in Belfast East Long (Alliance) and Robinson (DUP) look neck and neck.
00.20am: All ballot boxes have arrived, for four Belfast constituencies, as well as North Down and Strangford
Phillip Brett, DUP candidate for Belfast North
Gerry Carroll, PBP, Belfast West
Tim Collins, UUP, North Down
11.55pm: All ballot boxes for Belfast West, North and East have arrived.
11pm: West Belfast boxes start to arrive. The first in the count centre.
Welcome to our live coverage from the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast where we will bring you all the latest news from the four Belfast Westminster constituencies over the coming hours.
And with the election being held in July, that's thought to account for the 50 per cent increase in postal votes this time around compared to four-and-a-half-years-ago, with more than 25,000 having been issued.
The four constituencies have also seen boundary changes for this election, with the most obvious being Belfast South which is now Belfast South and Mid Down.
To keep you going as the votes are being counted this evening, here's the results from the four Belfast constituencies in the last General Election from December 2019. But don't worry, if anything happens, you'll be the first to know.
Belfast West 2019
Turnout – 59.1 per cent (38,782)
Eligible electorate- 65,621
Paul Maskey (SF) - 20,866
Gerry Carroll (PBP) - 6,194
Frank McCoubrey (DUP) - 5,220
Paul Doherty (SDLP) - 2,985
Donnamarie Higgins (Alliance) - 1,882
Monica Digney (Aontú) - 1,635
This seat had the largest Sinn Féin vote share at the 2019 general election.
Paul Maskey majority – 14,672.
Belfast North 2019
Turnout – 67.9 per cent (49,037)
Eligible electorate- 72,225
John Finucane (SF) - 23,078
Nigel Dodds (DUP - 21,135
Nuala McAllister (Alliance )- 4,824
This seat saw the only increase in vote share for Sinn Féin at the 2019 general election.
John Finucane majority – 1,943.
Belfast South 2019
Turnout – 67.6 per cent (47,352)
Eligible electorate - 70,047
Claire Hanna (SDLP) - 27,079
Emma Little-Pengelly (DUP) - 11,678
Paula Bradshaw (Alliance) - 6,786
Michael Henderson (UUP) - 1,259
Chris McHugh (Aontú) - 550
This seat saw the largest SDLP vote share and the largest increase in vote share for the party at the 2019 general election.
Sinn Féin did not contest the seat. It also saw the only fall in vote share for Alliance.
Claire Hanna majority – 15,401.
Belfast East 2019
Turnout – 64.1 per cent (42,445)
Eligible electorate – 66,217
Gavin Robinson (DUP) - 20,874
Naomi Long (Alliance) - 19,055
Carl McClean (UUP) - 2,516
Gavin Robinson majority – 1,819.
