The youngest leader in his party’s history will remain as an MP
Colum Eastwood is set to announce that he is stepping down as leader of the SDLP.
The Irish News understands that the Foyle MP will announce his departure from the role he has held for the past nine years at a press conference in Derry on Thursday.
His resignation comes just eight weeks after he retained his Westminster seat with a reduced majority of 4,166.
While the party also retained its seat in South Belfast & Mid Down, the overall general election result was regarded as disappointing for the SDLP, which lost substantial ground in South Down and Upper Bann.
Mr Eastwood, who succeeded Alasdair McDonnell as SDLP leader in 2015 following an acrimonious leadership contest, will remain as an MP.
The 41-year-old is his party’s sixth leader and its fifth since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.
A senior SDLP source said Mr Eastwood had been considering standing down for some time.
“Colum has been planning the moment of his transition for a while and believes that now is the right time to give a new leader the time and space to establish themselves with no election on the horizon for three years,” the source said.
“He is still going to play a very active role in political life, he will remain as the MP for Foyle, he’ll support the next leader and he’s planning to devote his political energy to building the case for a new Ireland, something that he is very passionate about and believes deserves more energy.”
He is expected to remain in the leader’s role until the SDLP conference in early October.
The father-of-two is the youngest leader in his party’s history, having assumed the role aged 32.
Five years before becoming leader, he was elected as mayor of Derry, again the youngest person ever to hold that position.
Mr Eastwood’s expected resignation comes little over a fortnight after the party’s chief executive quit 18 months after being appointed.
Conor Houston, a solicitor by profession and chair of the SDLP’s New Ireland Commission, is moving to a role in the private sector.
On his departure, Mr Eastwood described him as a “huge asset to our party”.
The leader’s resignation, just two weeks after his Ulster Unionist counterpart Doug Beattie announced he was stepping down, is expected to spark speculation about who his successor will be.
Fellow MP Claire Hanna is expected to be among the front runners, while South Belfast MLA Matthew O’Toole, the party’s leader in the assembly, is also likely to feature in any leadership contest.
by Force-Grand
13 comments
Colum saw Mike was about to be UUP leader again and wasn’t ready for “Vote Colum, got Mike” round 2.
About time, they need some fresh blood
To be fair he was probably going to start wearing balaclavas as the next step in his ever performative actions.
Man was always embarrassing himself and his party.
So, we’ve had Donaldson, Beaty and Eastwood this year. Naomi longs been in charge a decent while…
I like both Claire Hanna and Matthew O’Toole but could see the wider party suffer even more if SDLP isn’t led from Foyle. Surely that’s as good as a lost seat next time around if there isn’t a party leader in it.
Edit: And having a South Belfast leader just plays into that Solicitors, Doctors, Lawyers & Professionals joke.
I’ve always thought Colum seems like a reasonable, level headed guy.
https://preview.redd.it/qvrrxl93chld1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2e477e8d48186896e9a11af4094db327b534e7c2
This meme is a bit mean but I’ve nothing against Eastwood personally, it’s just that he could have resigned anytime in the last 7 years and I wouldn’t have been surprised.
His replacement (I assume Claire Hanna) will be the SDLP’s 5th leader of the post-GFA era and I doubt they will turn around the party’s fortunes because the party’s problems go much deeper than the leadership.
Once Hume left the stage the party struggled to remain relevant or find a purpose. Young activists attracted to the party’s legacy are increasingly disillusioned with how they’ve squandered it while the older generation left over from their peak are slowly dying out or have long switched to SF. I don’t think the SDLP will still be here in another 20 years.
Stepped Down Leader Party
He should have resigned long ago given the series of electoral failures he’s preceded over.
I predict that he’ll declare he’s not standing for reelection shortly before the next GE. I’d say it’s probable he’s gonna lose his seat to the Shinners given his reduced majority.
Last poll had the SDLP on a smaller percentage than the TUV, I wonder if that had anything to do with it.
Some baseless speculation on my part:
Assembly rules mean any party which wins at least 8% of the vote has the right to be the official opposition. The SDLP just about hit this threshold last time around.
Polling in the last few weeks suggests if the election was tomorrow they’d slip below 8% and loose the opposition entitlement to the TUV.
This would mean the party loses out significantly on official funding, loose their entitlement to a seat on every statutory committee (which would reduce their MLA’s pay), and loose their chairmanship of PAC.
It would basically be a death blow to whatever relevance the party had left.
SDLP is done for lmao.