Robinson Loses Westminster Seat

DUP leader Peter Robinson has lost his long held Westminster seat to Alliance's Naomi Long.

Despite being an established unionist stronghold, Ms Long (pictured) secured the seat by a majority of approximately 1,500 votes.

The Alliance candidate and current Belfast Lord Mayor trebled her vote from the last Westminster election in 2005, and makes history as the party's first ever MP.

Mr Robinson's vote slumped by 11% and may have been on foot of revelations concerning the former MP's personal difficulties over his wife and fellow politician and the impact of alleged property interactions.

The DUP leader polled 11,306 votes, to Ms Long's 12,839 votes.

The second 'downfall' was news that Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey is now facing a leadership question after he failed to dislodge the DUP's William McCrea in South Antrim.

In a seat, marked as a possible gain for the UUP-Tory alliance, Mr McCrea outpolled the Ulster Unionist leader by approximately 1,200 votes.

Mr McCrea obtained 11,536 votes in comparison to 10,353 for Mr Empey.

In West Belfast, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has defended his long held seat with a massive 22,840 votes against the nearest contender, Alex Attwood of the SDLP polled 5,261 votes and came second in the mainly nationalist constituency.

The DUP's Paisley Jnr has seen off TUV leader Jim Allister and will succeed his father as MP for the area having collected 19,672 votes against Mr Allister's 7,114.

THE DUP's Jeffrey Donaldson has comfortably retained his seat with another huge majority in Lagan Valley having polled 18,199 votes and in North Down, Lady Sylvia Hermon - who left the Ulster Unionsists over the Conservative pact - won a landslide victory as an independent with 21,181 votes ahead of Ian Parsley of Ulster Conservative and Unionists - New Force with 6,817.

See: Election Poll Changes Revealed

(BMcC/GK)