Northern Ireland · 75,346Boundary · 2023

Belfast West

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Dispatch
Apr 2026

A SF seat since 2010, held for 6 consecutive elections.

Sinn Féin's abstentionist policy means Paul Maskey has cast zero votes in Westminster -- one of 466 divisions -- since his election in 2011, and this is entirely by design. Sinn Féin MPs refuse to take their seats or swear allegiance to the Crown, so Maskey's blank voting record reflects party policy rather than personal disengagement. He is one of several Sinn Féin MPs returned to a parliament they do not participate in, making conventional Westminster metrics -- rebellion rates, party alignment scores, division records -- structurally inapplicable.

Beyond the abstentionist position, available data offers little to work with. No speech activity is recorded, he holds no select committee roles, and his news coverage over the past 90 days consists of three articles in which he does not appear -- coverage touching on child poverty in Belfast West, a surge in unpaid rates prosecutions in Northern Ireland, and a film production. Belfast West has the highest child poverty rate in Northern Ireland according to one of those reports, but no public response from Maskey is captured in available data.

75.3k
Electorate
2024 GE

Votes less often than 100% of MPs.

Current Member of Parliament

Paul Maskey

Paul Maskey

Sinn Féin

Paul Maskey is the Sinn Féin MP for Belfast West, and has been an MP continually since 9 June 2011.

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A SF seat since 2010, held for 6 consecutive elections.

2024 General Election

§ 06This week in Westminster.Live · today’s sittingOrder Paper · refreshed daily

Maskey’s scheduled Commons activity this week — whipped divisions, oral questions, debates — drawn from the House of Commons Order Paper.

§ 07The record, at a glance.0 divisions voted

Two readings of the same data. Issue volume shows where Maskey has cast the most ballots — a proxy for engagement, not direction. Notable votes are the moments where the whip was free or where they broke ranks.

Issue volume
Top issues by total divisions voted · cumulative this Parliament

Not enough division data yet for an issue breakdown.

Notable votes
Free votes and rebellions — moments the MP’s own judgment matters more than the whip

No rebellions or free votes recorded yet.

§ 08The local picture.Northern Ireland

Constituencies are not uniform. Below — the local council make-up, key facts worth knowing, and the neighbouring seats on either side.

Local-government election data has not yet been ingested for this constituency.

Next · dig deeperEvery division, question, speech and committee record

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record → Data view

Filter divisions, search written questions, read every speech since the election. Sortable, searchable, downloadable.

More constituency data is being added, including local issue analysis and historical trends. Learn about our methodology. View data sources & attribution.