Northern Ireland · 73,496Boundary · 2023

Foyle

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Dispatch
Apr 2026

Represented by SDLP since 2024.

A low voting presence in Westminster has not stopped Colum Eastwood from making his voice heard on local issues. His most prominent recent activity has been raising the alarm over Royal Mail postal failures in Derry, warning that patients are being removed from NHS waiting lists because appointment letters are not arriving -- an issue he has escalated by writing to both Stormont and Westminster ministers and speaking directly with postal workers. He also attended the vigil for Amy Doherty, the Derry mother-of-two murdered in March, calling publicly on men to stand against violence against women. In Westminster votes, he backed abolishing the two-child Universal Credit limit, consistent with his strong pro-welfare and pro-child welfare positioning.

At 33% voting participation, Eastwood is well below the Commons average -- though as leader of the SDLP, his party does not take positions on much UK-wide legislation, which limits the votes he would be expected to contest. When he does vote, he is 100% aligned with his party and leans strongly toward workers' rights, public ownership, rail nationalisation, and welfare expansion, while showing little alignment with business-friendly or fiscal austerity positions. He votes noticeably more pro-child welfare than his SDLP colleagues (+25 percentage points above party average). His 23 parliamentary contributions have focused on defence, crime, health, and social care.

163
Commons votes
This parliament
73.5k
Electorate
2024 GE

Votes less often than 95% of MPs.

Current Member of Parliament

Colum Eastwood

Colum Eastwood

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Colum Eastwood is the Social Democratic & Labour Party MP for Foyle, and has been an MP continually since 12 December 2019.

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Voting at a Glance

Represented by SDLP since 2024.

2024 General Election

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

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

§ 07The record, at a glance.167 divisions voted

Two readings of the same data. Issue volume shows where Eastwood 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
Economy
41
Taxation
29
Employment
29
Welfare and Benefits
18
Housing
18
Renters
13
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.