from Northern Ireland) to 600, as "a bureaucratic numbers game initiated by the Tories for purely party political advantage". In June 2013, the SDLP abstained during the vote on the Civil Service (Special Advisers) Bill in Stormont, ensuring its passing. This led to claims from Sinn Féin that the SDLP was endorsing a "hierarchy of victims"' agenda and abandoning the principles of the Good Friday Agreement. Despite the reported claims from Sinn Féin that it was inevitable that someone would mount a legal challenge to "what republicans view as a discriminatory law" no such challenge has since emerged. In the 2015 United Kingdom general election he stood again in Belfast South and was returned on 24.5% of the vote, the lowest ever vote share recorded by a successful MP in any part of the UK. On 14 November 2015, McDonnell lost the leadership contest held at the SDLP's annual conference. His successor as leader of the party, Colum Eastwood, won with 172 votes to the 133 that McDonnell received. On 8 June 2017, McDonnell lost his South Belfast seat to Emma Little-Pengelly (DUP) in the 2017 general election, despite increasing his vote from 2015. References External links Official website Profile, stratagem-ni.com 1949 births Living people Members of Belfast City Council Members of the Northern Ireland Forum Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Belfast constituencies (since 1922) National Democratic Party (Northern Ireland) politicians Northern Ireland MLAs 1998–2003 Northern Ireland MLAs 2003–2007 Northern Ireland MLAs 2007–2011 Northern Ireland MLAs 2011–2016 People from Cushendall Social Democratic and Labour Party MLAs Social Democratic and Labour Party MPs (UK) UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 Leaders of the Social Democratic and Labour Party