Naomi Long

Naomi Long MLA
Leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 October 2016
Deputy	Stephen Farry
Preceded by	David Ford
Member of Parliament for Belfast East
In office 6 May 2010 – 30 March 2015
Preceded by	Peter Robinson
Succeeded by	Gavin Robinson
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Belfast East
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 2016
Preceded by	Judith Cochrane
In office 26 November 2003 – 5 July 2010
Preceded by	John Alderdice
Succeeded by	Chris Lyttle
54th Lord Mayor of Belfast
In office June 2009 – June 2010
Preceded by	Tom Hartley
Succeeded by	Pat Convery
Councillor on Belfast City Council for Victoria Ward
In office 7 June 2001 – 26 August 2010
Succeeded by	Laura McNamee
Personal details
Born	Naomi Rachel Johnston (1971-12-13) 13 December 1971 Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Political party	Alliance
Spouse(s)	Michael Long
Alma mater	Queen's University Belfast
Website	Official website

Naomi Rachel Long MLA (née Johnston; born 13 December 1971) is a Northern Irish politician who has been leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland since 2016. A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Belfast East since 2016, she previously held the same seat in the Northern Ireland Assembly from 2003 to 2010 until her election to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015 as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Westminster constituency of Belfast East. She served as the second elected female Lord Mayor of Belfast from 2009 to 2010.

Background

Born in East Belfast, she attended Mersey Street Primary and Bloomfield Collegiate School.^[1] She graduated from Queen's University of Belfast with a degree in civil engineering in 1994, worked in a structural engineering consultancy for two years, held a research and training post at Queen's University for three years, and then went back into consultancy (environmental and hydraulic engineering) for four years. She is married to Michael Long, an Alliance councillor on Belfast City Council, and is a member of Bloomfield Presbyterian Church.^[2][3]

Political career

She first took political office in 2001 when she was elected to Belfast City Council for the Victoria ward. In 2003 Long was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly for Belfast East, succeeding her fellow party member John Alderdice. In 2006 she was named deputy leader of her party. In 2007 she more than doubled the party's vote in the constituency, being placed second ahead of the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. The overall UUP vote, however, was 22%. At 18.8%, her vote share was higher than that for Alderdice in 1998.

On 1 June 2009 she was elected as Lord Mayor of Belfast, defeating William Humphrey (Democratic Unionist Party) by 26 votes to 24 in a vote at a council meeting. She became the second woman to hold the post, after Grace Bannister (1981–82).^[4]

On 6 May 2010 she defeated Peter Robinson, First Minister of Northern Ireland and leader of the DUP, to become Member of Parliament (MP) for Belfast East in the House of Commons.^[5] She became the first MP elected to Westminster for the Alliance Party (previously, Stratton Mills, a former Ulster Unionist Party MP, had changed parties to Alliance). Long also became the first Liberal-affiliated MP elected to Westminster in Northern Ireland since James Brown Dougherty in Londonderry City in 1914. Despite the close relationship between the Alliance Party and the Liberal Democrats, Long did not sit with the coalition government nor take the coalition whip^[6] and was not a member of the Liberal Democrats.^[7]

On 10 December 2012, Long received a number of death threats and a petrol bomb was thrown inside an unmarked police car guarding her constituency office. This violence erupted as a reaction by Ulster loyalists to the decision by Alliance Party members of Belfast City Council to vote in favour of restricting the flying of the Union flag at Belfast City Hall to 17 specific days throughout the year.^[8]

In 2015 Long lost her seat in the Commons to Gavin Robinson of the DUP, as a result of a five-party unionist pact in the constituency which saw the UUP, UKIP, TUV and PUP all stand aside in favour of Robinson.^[9]

On 26 October 2016, Long was elected Alliance leader.^[10]

Electoral history

UK Parliament elections

Northern Ireland Assembly elections

References

External links

Media related to Naomi Long at Wikimedia Commons

• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 2010–present
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou