Following the success of the Alliance party in the European elections, the #Alliancesurge has continued as the party increased its vote share by 8.8% and won a seat in the early parliamentary elections held on 12 December.

The Alliance party picked up 16.8% of the vote across Northern Ireland – its best ever result – but thanks to the UK’s First Past the Post electoral system managed to elect only one MP from the 18 elected from Northern Ireland.

Stephen Farry, the party’s deputy leader, successfully won election in the constituency of North Down where he replaced long-term incumbent and independent Lady Sylvia Hermon who chose not to contest the 2019 election.

Naomi Long MEP, the party’s leader who won Alliance’s first ever seat in the European Parliament in May, ran in East Belfast but despite increasing her vote share by 8.2% fell less than 2,000 votes short of finishing top.

The Alliance Party was the only party in Northern Ireland to contest all available seats. This election in Northern Ireland was also notable since for the first time in history, traditional Irish nationalist parties won more seats than traditional unionist parties.

Huge thanks to all those in North Down who have put their trust in me, and to all of my campaign workers. Huge challenges lie ahead in fighting Brexit. Twitter handle changed to MP. https://t.co/oEW6eMNd7s

Read more: Alliance’s success is no fluke – we have changed Northern Irish politics for good, by Stephen Farry MP.