Sinn Féin 'needs to take action after Foyle body blow' in general election

Maeve McLaughlin said the election defeat was an 'awful slap' for the party in Derry.

Sinn Féin's defeat in Foyle in the general election was a "major body blow" and the party must take action, a former assembly member has said.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood took the seat with 17,110 votes more than Sinn Féin's Elisha McCallion - overturning her 169-vote majority.

Maeve McLaughlin, an MLA for Foyle from 2012 to 2016, said the result was an "awful slap".

She said the party had to examine its policy and wider strategy in the seat.

"Sinn Féin locally needs to not only listen, not only reflect, but take action in relation to the mood that exists in the city," Ms McLaughlin said.

"It's a time for tough conversations and I do believe that includes all of the key issues, all of the key personnel and all of the key policy directions locally."

Sinn Féin won the House of Commons seat of Foyle for the first time in 2017, ending the SDLP's 34-year grip on the constituency.

But Mr Eastwood's majority on 12 December was the largest ever secured in Foyle.

• Full results from Foyle

• 'Some bruising defeats for DUP and Sinn Féin'

Much of the debate in the lead-up to the poll centred around abstentionism - Sinn Féin's longstanding policy of not taking seats at Westminster if elected.

SDLP representatives take their seats in the House of Commons, and Mr Eastwood argued it was better for Londonderry to have its voice heard in Parliament in this way.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood won comfortably in Foyle

Ms McLaughlin acknowledged this had been an issue for some voters, and also identified the suspension of devolved government at Stormont as something people had delivered a verdict on.

The institutions collapsed in January 2017 after Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) split amid a bitter row.

"Cleary abstentionism was an issue for some people, but it equally is not an issue for many, many republicans," she said.

"But I do think that things like Stormont delivery were clearly on people's minds."

She added there was "no appetite" for a change in the party's abstentionist policy.

"In any walk of life when we see a continual drip feed of the polls against the party locally, that's not translated across the rest of the north, then we need to put everything on the table, and be open and honest about that," Ms McLaughlin added.

"If you were running a business it would be no different."

She said the party could "turn this around" if the processes were "overhauled, reviewed and acted on."

Ms McLaughlin was co-opted into the Northern Ireland Assembly in June 2012 to replace Martina Anderson, but lost her seat in the assembly election of May 2016.

The SDLP Colum Eastwood leader is one of 140 new MPs taking their seats at Westminster

Meanwhile, Mr Eastwood, who is among 140 MPs entering Westminster for the first time, said the election had sent a clear message to Sinn Féin and the DUP.

"They will have to listen and that a lot of these principled positions will disappear and we will be back in Stormont very, very soon," he said.

The SDLP leader described Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plans to rule out an extension to the post-Brexit transition period as "seriously reckless."

He said a no-deal exit from the EU was "something we must do everything we can to avoid."

Mr Eastwood said "the SDLP will do what the SDLP thinks is right for people" in Northern Ireland.