Belfast Clifton (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)

Belfast Clifton
Former Borough constituency for the Parliament of Northern Ireland
Belfast shown within Northern Ireland
Former constituency
Created	1929
Abolished	1973
Election method	First past the post

Belfast Clifton was a constituency of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.

Boundaries

Belfast Clifton was a borough constituency comprising part of northern Belfast. It was created in 1929 when the House of Commons (Method of Voting and Redistribution of Seats) Act (Northern Ireland) 1929 introduced first-past-the-post elections throughout Northern Ireland.

Belfast Clifton was created by the division of Belfast North into four new constituencies. It survived unchanged, returning one member of Parliament, until the Parliament of Northern Ireland was temporarily suspended in 1972, and then formally abolished in 1973.

Politics

In common with other seats in North Belfast, the seat had little nationalist presence. The seat was usually held by the Ulster Unionist Party, but a variety of independent Unionists contested it and occasionally won, and some labour movement candidates achieved strong results.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1929	Samuel Hall-Thompson	Ulster Unionist Party
	1953	Norman Porter	Independent Unionist
	1958	Robin Kinahan	Ulster Unionist Party
	1959(b)	William James Morgan	Ulster Unionist Party
	1969	Lloyd Hall-Thompson	Independent Unionist
	1973	Constituency abolished

Election results

At the 1929 and 1933 Northern Ireland general elections, Samuel Hall-Thompson was elected unopposed.

General Election 1938: Belfast Clifton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Samuel Hall-Thompson	6,683	54.4	N/A
	Ind. Unionist Party	William McConnell Wilton	5,600	45.6	New
Majority			1,083	8.8	N/A
Turnout			12,283	72.1	N/A
	UUP hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 1945: Belfast Clifton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Samuel Hall-Thompson	7,272	62.0	+7.6
	NI Labour	Andrew Carlin	4,458	38.0	New
Majority			2,814	24.0	+15.2
Turnout			11,730	67.2	−4.9
	UUP hold		Swing

General Election 1949: Belfast Clifton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Samuel Hall-Thompson	10,715	83.6	+21.6
	Independent Labour	Owen J. Keane	2,107	16.4	New
Majority			8,608	67.2	+43.2
Turnout			12,822	73.0	+5.8
	UUP hold		Swing

General Election 1953: Belfast Clifton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ind. Unionist	Norman Porter	4,747	51.9	New
	UUP	Samuel Hall-Thompson	4,402	48.1	−35.5
Majority			345	3.8	N/A
Turnout			9,149	50.9	−22.1
	Ind. Unionist gain from UUP		Swing

General Election 1958: Belfast Clifton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	Robin Kinahan	5,755	50.2	+2.1
	Ind. Unionist	Norman Porter	5,710	49.8	−2.1
Majority			45	0.4	N/A
Turnout			11,465	67.5	+16.6
	UUP gain from Ind. Unionist		Swing

Belfast Clifton by-election, 1959

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	William James Morgan	5,212	50.2	0.0
	Ind. Unionist	Norman Porter	3,978	38.4	−11.4
	NI Labour	Victoria Dunlop	1,185	11.4	New
Majority			1,234	11.8	+11.4
Turnout			10,375	61.1	−6.4
	UUP hold		Swing

General Election 1962: Belfast Clifton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	William James Morgan	6,474	58.6	+8.4
	NI Labour	Norman Thompson	4,571	41.4	N/A
Majority			1,903	17.2	+16.8
Turnout			11,045	66.9	−0.6
	UUP hold		Swing

General Election 1965: Belfast Clifton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UUP	William James Morgan	6,083	65.2	+6.6
	NI Labour	Norman Thompson	3,247	34.8	−6.6
Majority			2,836	30.4	+13.2
Turnout			9,330	57.5	−9.4
	UUP hold		Swing

General Election 1969: Belfast Clifton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unofficial Unionist	Lloyd Hall-Thompson	6,066	50.4	New
	UUP	William James Morgan	3,215	26.7	−38.5
	NI Labour	Norman Thompson	1,681	13.9	−20.9
	National Democratic	Michael McKeown	1,079	9.0	New
Majority			2,851	23.7	N/A
Turnout			12,041	74.3	+15.8
	Unofficial Unionist gain from UUP		Swing