its best results so far by polling more than 22% of the votes in the Assembly election. David Bleakley was the only NILP representative elected to the 1973 Assembly and 1975 Forum for East Belfast. The Northern Ireland Labour Party continued to contest elections but with a dwindling support base. Alan Carr became its leading figure from the mid-1970s until the early 1980s, by which point it had only about 200 members, and just a single councillor was elected for the party in 1981. A party conference in 1983 narrowly failed to secure a necessary two-thirds majority to wind up the party, but it stood no candidates in the 1983 general election, its Chairman and Party Secretary having resigned just beforehand, and by the 1985 Northern Ireland local elections, its three candidates received no support from the central body. Labour '87 In March 1987, the remains of the party merged with Labour Party of Northern Ireland (formed in 1985 by former SDLP leader Paddy Devlin), the Ulster Liberal Party and the United Labour Party to form the Labour '87 group. This group also gained the support of the Newtownabbey Labour Party. They contested local elections and Mark Langhammer contested the 1989 European Elections unsuccessfully. Leadership Leaders at Stormont 1925–29: Samuel Kyle 1929–33: Jack Beattie 1933–38: Harry Midgley 1938–42: Paddy Agnew 1942–43: Jack Beattie 1943–45: Paddy Agnew 1945–49: Hugh Downey 1949–50: William James Smyth 1958–69: Tom Boyd 1969–73: Vivian Simpson Chairs 1924: Sam Kyle 1925: William McMullen 1927: Matthew Courtney 1931: Hugh Gemmell 1932: Harry Midgley 1942: Jack Beattie 1943: 1944: William Leeburn 1945: Jack Macgougan 1946: John Boyle 1947: Robert Getgood 1947: Henry Holmes 1948: James Morrow 1950: 1952: Vivian Simpson 1953: Tom Boyd 1954: Cecil Allen 1955: Saidie Patterson 1956: W. Blair 1957: David Bleakley 1958: Andrew Gibson 1959: Robert Bingham 1960: Billy Boyd 1961: 1962: Charles Brett 1963: Hugh Waring 1964: Edward Wright 1965: William Gunning 1966: Martin McBirney 1967: Paddy Devlin 1969: Robert Allen 1970: Brian Anderson 1971: Erskine Holmes 1972: Brian Garrett 1973: Archie McArdle 1973: Brian Garrett 1974: Jack Barkley 1975: George Chambers 1976: Sandy Scott 1977: Alan Carr 1980: Ciaran McAteer 1981: Bob Clarke 1983: William Gunning Electoral performance Stormont Local government References 1924 establishments in Northern Ireland 1987 disestablishments in Northern Ireland Defunct political parties in Northern Ireland Defunct social democratic parties in the United Kingdom History of the Labour Party (UK) Labour