Colum Eastwood: Derry's youngest mayor to SDLP leader at 32 - what you need to know about the Northern Ireland politician
The SDLP are fighting to keep and gain seats in Northern Ireland during the general election campaign after losing seats in other elections over the past few years.
Wednesday 12 June 2024 16:32, UK
Derry's youngest mayor at the age of 27, Colum Eastwood has now been leader of Northern Ireland's nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) for nearly a decade.
The 41-year-old joined the SDLP in 1998, aged just 14, as he said he was inspired by the Good Friday Agreement - signed that year - and SDLP leader at the time, John Hume.
Mr Eastwood was elected to Derry City Council at 22 years old and then became the city's youngest mayor five years later at the age of 27.
It was not long before he moved from the mayor's office to Stormont where he was elected as an MLA for Foyle in 2011 - again the youngest - and was nominated to stand as the SDLP's deputy leader just four months later.
However, he turned the offer down to focus on his constituency before challenging Alasdair McDonnell for the leadership of the SDLP four years later, saying the party was lacking in ideas and he wanted to take it in a fresh direction.
Mr Eastwood won the leadership vote after saying an Irish nationalist party could not be led from Westminster.
At 32 years old, he became the party's sixth leader in 2015.
Controversy
During his time as an MLA - pre-leadership - Mr Eastwood came under fire from Unionists for carrying the coffin of a former Irish National Liberation Army member in Derry.
The funeral was a paramilitary-style service, with a masked Real IRA gunman firing a volley of shots over the coffin.
Mr Eastwood said he was there in a personal capacity as a friend of Seamus Coyle, the man whose coffin he was carrying, and was not present when the gunshot were fired.
House of Commons
The SDLP leader was elected as a Westminster MP for Foyle in the 2019 general election, beating the incumbent Sinn Fein candidate with a landslide victory.
Almost a year after becoming an MP, he called for a full and independent judicial inquiry into the 1989 murder of Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane, who came to prominence for successfully challenging the British government in several important human rights cases in the '80s.
In July 2021, he used his parliamentary privilege to reveal the identity in the House of Commons of Bloody Sunday's Soldier F, a former British soldier who served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles who was prosecuted for the murders of two civilians in 2023.
This election will see Mr Eastwood trying to hold his home constituency of Foyle.
The success of the SDLP this election is strongly linked to Mr Eastwood's performance in Foyle as he is both leader and there was only one other SDLP MP before the campaign began.
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Northern Ireland Assembly elections in 2022 were bruising for the SDLP as it lost four seats, finishing with just eight, so it was pushed into opposition at Stormont.
And last year's council elections saw the SDLP lose 20 seats.
The party - and Mr Eastwood - will be fighting hard to keep and gain seats, with the leader expected to argue his party has made a difference by taking its seats in the Commons, while Sinn Fein MPs have refused to sit as they do not approve of Northern Ireland being ruled by Westminster.