South Belfast MP Claire Hanna has been endorsed by the SDLP to succeed Colum Eastwood as the next party leader after nominations for the role closed on Friday.
The 44-year-old Connemara-born politician was the sole candidate and will be ratified at the party’s annual conference on October 5th.
In a statement, the SDLP said Ms Hanna had received the nominations of every eligible party constituency branch and support group.
The news comes a week after Mr Eastwood confirmed his resignation, saying it was time for him to “step aside” after nine years as leader. He will continue his work as MP for Foyle.
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As he announced his departure, he backed Ms Hanna to replace him, describing her as “far and away the best option”.
The party’s former Brexit spokesperson, Ms Hanna’s family is steeped in SDLP history. Her mother, Carmel, was a long-standing MLA, who served briefly as a Stormont minister, while her father, Eamon, is a former general secretary of the party. The family moved to south Belfast when Ms Hanna was three-years-old.
Regarded as one of the SDLP’s most capable representatives, Ms Hanna had a career in international development before entering politics and travelled to Haiti, Zambia and Bangladesh through her work in policy and education posts.
First elected to Belfast City Council in 2011 for the Balmoral ward, she was co-opted on to the Northern Ireland Assembly as an MLA, and re-elected in 2016 and 2018 until her landslide Westminster election victory in 2019, when she ousted DUP incumbent Emma Little-Pengelly, now Stormont’s Deputy First Minister.
Ms Hanna was re-elected to the South Belfast seat in July with a majority of more than 12,000, holding off the centrist Alliance vote, despite the SDLP’s sharp electoral decline. The party was once the dominant force within nationalist politics in Northern Ireland, but has fewer MPs, MLAs and councillors now than a decade ago and is fifth in the Assembly line-up.
She sits on the Northern Ireland Affairs scrutiny committee in Westminster and is the SDLP’s spokesperson for Europe and International Affairs.
In 2019, Ms Hanna resigned the party whip over proposals for a partnership with Fianna Fáil and she recently revealed in a BBC interview that the plan made her consider quitting.
Party insiders say that since announcing her intention to run for leader, there has been a “bounce” among grassroots members.
“People seem to be uplifted by her and there’s a sense of relief at the change,” said one.
Former SDLP vice-chair Tom Kelly described Ms Hanna as a “pretty charismatic politician”.
“Colum is a very accomplished public speaker but when you’re charismatic, you carry that with you all the time,” he said. “It’s a wee bit like Leo Varadkar, who is a brilliant performer when the lights go on.
“Claire also seems to enjoy engagement. While the first rule of being a leader is likeability, you must also have the ability to engage with people. She has that fearlessness about going in – if she leaves you and you don’t even agree with her, you won’t disagree.”
Mr Kelly said by that by beginning her political career at councillor level, she had “learned all the rules”.
“She has politics and the SDLP in her DNA but took the more difficult route of going into local government to cut her teeth at grassroots – when she could have easily gone in as an MLA. But that was the correct career path for a politician.”
Last week Ms Hanna admitted that taking on the leadership job was daunting.
“I’m not someone who thinks they have all the answers ... but I have been involved in the SDLP for many, many years and I have learned a thing or two about the things that work in terms of organising people and in terms of motivating,” she said.
“I’m looking forward to getting stuck in if that’s what the members decide.”
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