Colum Eastwood resigns as leader of the SDLP

Colum Eastwood has announced his resignation as leader of the SDLP, saying he wants space and time to serve as a voice for change.

The Foyle MP said his decision to resign would “give someone else a chance” and inject new energy into the party.

At a press conference on Thursday, he confirmed his decision to step down as party leader after nine years in office.

Mr Eastwood will formally resign at the party conference on 5 October to allow the new leader to take office.

When Eastwood announced his retirement, he told reporters that “the time had come for me to step down.”

Mr Eastwood said: “Some people may not realise how much effort goes into the day-to-day running of a political party.”

He said he wanted to focus on representing the people of Derry as Foyle MP – a post he will retain – and also work with the New Ireland Commission, a body he set up to examine Irish reunification.

It is expected that he will remain chairman until the party has elected a successor.

Writing on social mediaDUP leader Gavin Robinson wished him well and said Mr Eastwood would “continue to support Foyle in Westminster as he has done so far”.

His resignation comes just eight weeks after he retained his seat at Westminster with a reduced majority of 4,166 votes.

While the party also retained its seat in South Belfast and Mid Down, the overall general election result was seen as disappointing for the SDLP, which lost significant ground in South Down and Upper Bann.

At just 41 years old, Colum Eastwood is considered by many to be a veteran of the Social Democratic and Labour Party.

Mr Eastwood joined the party in 1998.

The 2015 party conference, at which he was elected chairman, was his 18th party conference, and he has held elected office for nearly two decades.

Eastwood was born in Londonderry in 1983 and attended the city’s St. Columb’s College, whose former pupils included two Nobel Prize winners: the poet Seamus Heaney and the long-serving SDLP leader John Hume.

He said Mr Hume and his deputy Seamus Mallon were among the figures who persuaded him to join the party to promote the Good Friday Agreement.

In 2005, just a week after his 22nd birthday, he was elected to Derry City Council and served as the city’s youngest mayor from 2010 to 2011.

Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly followed in May 2011.

In 2015, he challenged incumbent Alasdair McDonnell for the party leadership, defeating him by 172 votes to 133.

His election as chairman drew renewed attention to a controversial moment in 2012 when he carried the coffin of a personal friend at a paramilitary-style funeral.

He said he was acting in his personal capacity and defended his decision.

In the 2019 Westminster election, Eastwood attempted to reclaim his seat from Sinn Féin, which had won it for the first time by a narrow majority in the previous election.

He emerged victorious with a majority of 17,110 votes.

Michael McBride reports from Derry

John and Lee Mitchell said they were both stunned when they heard the news.

They are both traditional SDLP voters and said they heard the news on Thursday morning and were “caught by surprise” by it.

Lee Mitchell expressed her hope that Claire Hanna would take over as party leader. She is “a very competent person” and she believes that the party, which has struggled at the polls recently, could do better in the future if she took the reins.

“I think it’s never a bad thing to have another woman in charge,” she says.

Phil Langman, from Liverpool and a resident of the city for 26 years, said Mr Eastwood had been a fantastic leader for the party but understood why he believed now was the right time to step down.

“I think after about nine years at the top you can understand that,” he says.

“I think he is a fantastic MP, he comes across as a decent man, but the role of leader of a political party must take its toll,” he added.

“I think that anyone who follows in the footsteps of people like John Hume will always find it difficult to leave as much of a legacy here in politics as he did.”

Trevor and Ann Porter are convinced that the successor will follow in big footsteps.

Ann said the party had had no luck at the last election but still believed the Foyle MP was the best man to “steer the ship” as leader in the coming years.

However, a man who did not want to give his name said Mr Eastwood would not be missed.

“They are a dying party. I will not miss him at all,” he told BBC News NI.

Analysis – “Good time for a burned-out leader to resign”

Although the news may come as a surprise to many, there has been talk in SDLP circles for some time that Colum Eastwood was feeling a little burnt out.

And with the Westminster election over and any further elections not for another three years, it seemed as good a time as any to call it a day and resign of his own accord.

He will defend the Westminster seat of Foyle, which he won again at the recent general election, and is expected to help the party’s New Ireland Commission, which he set up.

There is only one obvious choice to succeed Mr Eastwood: his colleague on the Green Bench, Claire Hanna.

Read more of Jayne McCormack’s analysis of this story Here.