DUP lose Westminster seat held by Paisleys since 1970

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has lost its Westminster seat in North Antrim, which has been held by the Paisley family for 54 years.

Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister won the seat by 450 votes in Thursday's general election.

The Rev Ian Paisley first won the seat in 1970, and it had been held by his son, Ian Paisley, since 2010.

Mr Allister's result was confirmed after a partial recount.

The TUV leader received 11,642 votes to Mr Paisley's 11,192 votes.

Mr Paisley conceded "the tides of life ebb and flow" and admitted it was not the script he had written for himself in this election.

He congratulated his successor Jim Allister, who said the result was a win for his party of "seismic proportions".

Mr Allister, a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, is a former DUP councillor and member of the European Parliament.

He told BBC News NI he had sensed in the last week of the campaign that he could win.

Describing the election as a "new starting point" for North Antrim, he said he would oppose Northern Ireland's post-Brexit trading arrangements from the green benches.

Earlier this year the DUP re-entered power-sharing at Stormont after reaching an agreement to resolve its concerns over the Northern Ireland Protocol and the Windsor Framework.

These had introduced new checks on the movement of some goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Mr Allister had campaigned under his party name with the added line 'No Sea Border', referencing his description of the measures creating a new border in the Irish Sea.

The TUV also had an electoral arrangement with Reform UK, which did not stand separate candidates in Northern Ireland.

However, during the campaign, Reform UK's leader, Nigel Farage, gave a personal endorsement to DUP candidates Ian Paisley and Sammy Wilson.

Mr Allister said he found out the news through the media and said his pact was made in "good faith".

The Paisleys have been a prominent family dynasty in Northern Ireland politics for more than half a century.

Ian Paisley first won the seat in 2010, taking it on from his father, the Rev Ian Paisley.

He had been a co-founder of the DUP and a prominent critic of both power-sharing and Dublin’s role in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

He later shared power with one time enemy Martin McGuinness, a Sinn Féin politician who had been a member of the IRA.

Ian Paisley Jr had a majority of almost 13,000 in the 2019 election but has now lost the seat by 450 votes.

He has previously worked as a junior minister at Stormont and was among the first assembly members when power-sharing was established after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.