John Blair (Northern Ireland politician)

John Kenneth Blair (born 10 February 1966) is an Alliance Party politician, who has been a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for South Antrim since 2018. He is the first openly gay member of the Assembly.[2][3]

John Blair
MLA
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
for South Antrim
Assumed office
27 June 2018
Preceded byDavid Ford
Personal details
Born (1966-02-10) 10 February 1966
NationalityNorthern Irish
Political partyAlliance
Other political
affiliations		Newtownabbey Ratepayers' Association (1997–2005)[1]
OccupationPolitician
Websitehttp://www.johnblairmla.com/

Political career

Early career (1997-2005)

John Blair was elected as a councillor to Newtownabbey Borough Council for the Newtonabbey Ratepayers' Association in the 1997 Local Elections, but lost his seat at the 2001 Local Elections after his vote decreased from 6.7% to 3.7%. He attempted to take a different seat the following 2005 elections, but was unsuccessful.[1]

Councillor (2011-2018)

Blair was elected to Newtownabbey Borough Council in the 2011 local elections, representing Antrim Line DEA as an Alliance candidate. He topped the poll and was elected on the first count with 15.96% of the FPVs.[4] He was re-elected to the new Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council in 2014, representing the Glengormley Urban DEA.[1][5]

Member of the Legislative Assembly (2018-)

In 2018, he was co-opted to fill former Alliance Party Leader David Ford's Assembly seat in South Antrim, following David Ford's resignation.[6] Blair has been appointed to the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly and the Northern Ireland Policing Board.[7][8]

He ran as the Alliance Party candidate for South Antrim in the 2019 General Election, increasing Alliance's share of the vote by 11.7% - from 7.4% to 19.4% - and taking third place.[9]

Blair ran at the 2022 Assembly election, taking 7,315 FPVs (16%), and was re-elected on Stage 2.

Personal life

Blair is the first openly gay MLA to sit in the Northern Ireland Assembly.[10][11] Blair has faced harassment due to his sexuality, including from a DUP councillor who sat on the same policing board alongside Blair.[12]

See also

References
  1. "Newtownabbey Council Elections 1993–2011". ark.ac.uk.
  2. Ferguson, Amanda (27 June 2018). "Northern Ireland set to have its first openly gay MLA". The Irish Times. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  3. "John Kenneth BLAIR - Personal Appointments (free information from Companies House)". Companies House.
  4. "Antrim Line Result Sheet" (PDF). The Electoral Office for Northern Ireland. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  5. "Glengormley braced for loyalist trouble". Belfast Media Group. 7 December 2012.
  6. Bell, Jonathan (27 June 2018). "Meet Northern Ireland's first openly gay MLA – David Ford Alliance replacement John Blair". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  7. "The Northern Ireland Assembly". Government of the United Kingdom.
  8. "Northern Ireland Members and Associates". British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  9. "South Antrim parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". BBC News. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  10. McCormack, Jayne (27 June 2018). "First openly gay MLA takes Stormont seat". BBC News. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  11. "Foster's attendance at LGBT event welcomed as 'a small but significant step towards equality'". News Letter. 29 June 2018. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  12. "Policing board member sacked over gay jibes". The Irish Times. 3 June 2004. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
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