Sorcha Eastwood is the Alliance Party MP for Lagan Valley, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Eastwood won 18,618 votes, representing 37.9% of the vote. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) candidate, Jonathan Buckley, received 15,659 votes (31.9%), while the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) candidate, Robbie Butler, secured 11,157 votes (22.7%). Sorcha Eastwood was duly elected with a majority of 2,959 votes.

The Lagan Valley constituency was created in 1983. Historically considered a safe unionist seat, it was represented by former UUP leader James Molyneaux from 1983 to 1997. Jeffrey Donaldson, the former leader of the DUP, held the seat from 1997 to 2024.

Eastwood was the first woman and non-unionist to be elected to represent the constituency.

Political Career

Eastwood is a member of the House of Commons Northern Ireland affairs select committee (since October 2024) – the committee responsible for scrutinising the policy, administration and spending of the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) and its associated public bodies.

Eastwood chose not to run in the 2024 Alliance Party deputy leadership election, saying her “heart lies with the people of Lagan Valley who trusted me to be their MP.”

In April 2026, Eastwood issued a stinging criticism of the government over the Peter Mandelson vetting scandal. She argued that Mandelson’s history was “open-source material” and claimed he would have failed the vetting standards required for a children’s football club.

Eastwood told the House: “The prime minister said it was a mistake, but here is what I do not understand: everything about Mandelson that would have been a cause for concern was open-source material – it was out there. Peter Mandelson would not have survived the vetting for a kids’ football club, and rightly so.”

Eastwood urged Labour MPs to vote for an opposition motion referring Keir Starmer, the prime minister, to the House of Commons privileges committee. The cross-party group would have been tasked with leading an investigation into claims Starmer misled parliament over the appointment of Mandelson as ambassador to the United States.

Eastwood added: “Will the real prime minister please stand up? Please stand up. Is it the man who wanted to tread lightly on our lives? Is it the man who promised a decade of national renewal? Is it the man who said he was going to do things by the book and better? Because in my nearly two years here, I have not seen that.”

In November 2025, Eastwood was one of 34 cross-party MPs and peers who signed a letter to Ofcom demanding an investigation into the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). The letter, led by Joani Reid, chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on antisemitism, called on the regulator to determine whether the platform was in breach of its legal duties under the Online Safety Act following a reported surge in antisemitic content and calls for violence against Jews on X.

Eastwood is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for stem cell transplantation and advanced cellular therapies (vice chair).

Eastwood delivered her maiden speech on 3 September 2024 during a debate on the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill.

In it, she said: “The system is broken. The social contract is shattered. It is not working. We have played this tape through to the end. We know how it ends. It so often ends with the most vulnerable in society crushed by a system that is sometimes overwhelmingly stacked against them.”

She added: “Austerity is a political choice, and not one that my constituents – or frankly anybody in the UK – should be forced to bear…

“Alliance proudly went out before the election and campaigned primarily on two things – first, reform of the institutions and ending the veto, which so often has led to having no government for the guts of 10 years where I am from. That is not acceptable…

“It is one thing to say that we need reform of the institutions and for the UK Government to say that we have won the intellectual argument. Well, guess what? We have also won the argument at the ballot box time and time again.”

Before her election to the parliament at Westminster, Eastwood served as a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Lagan Valley from 2022 to 2024.

Previously, Eastwood was an Alliance Party councillor on Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council from 2019 to 2022.

Eastwood contested the Lagan Valley constituency for the Alliance Party at the 2019 general election and the Belfast West seat at the 2017 general election.

Political views

The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI) is a liberal and centrist political party in Northern Ireland. Its foundational principle is the promotion of a united community in Northern Ireland.

A recent version of the party’s constitution described its overriding objective as seeking to “heal the bitter divisions in our community”. The party is neutral on the constitutional status of Northern Ireland, arguing that the issue should not be the dominant basis of politics.

Brexit and Europe

Customs union vote (2025): In December 2025, Eastwood voted in favour of the UK-EU Customs Union (Duty to Negotiate) Bill. The bill, introduced under the 10-minute rule procedure by Liberal Democrat Europe spokesperson Al Pinkerton, sought to mandate the government to enter into negotiations with the European Union to establish a bespoke customs union. In total, 13 Labour MPs joined the Liberal Democrats in supporting the motion, while the majority of the party abstained.

Electoral reform

Electoral reform amendment: In May 2026, Eastwood signed an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill, calling on the government to establish a “national commission on electoral reform”. Tabled by Alex Sobel as chair of the fair elections APPG, the amendment aimed to force a rethink of the first past the post voting system.

At the time, Sobel described FPTP as “one of the biggest examples of a broken status quo in UK politics.” He invited colleagues to join this “common sense call to take a fresh look at how parliament is elected in modern Britain.”

Welfare

Welfare ‘reasoned amendment’ (June 2025): Eastwood signed the reasoned amendment to the government’s flagship welfare bill which aimed to reject the proposed legislation.

The amendment, in the name of senior Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, objected to the fact that the bill had not been subject to a “formal consultation with disabled people” and that “250,000 people will be pushed into poverty” as a result of it, according to a government impact assessment.

The motion also called on the government to wait for the publication of the review into the Personal Independence Payment (Pip), helmed by minister Sir Stephen Timms, and the independent review, conducted by Sir Charlie Mayfield, into how the employment of disabled people could be boosted.

Winter fuel payment EDM: In September 2024, Eastwood signed an early day motion (EDM) expressing concern over the government’s proposed changes to the winter fuel payment. The motion called on the government to “postpone the ending of winter fuel payments and establish a comprehensive strategy to tackle fuel poverty, health inequality and low incomes among older people.”

Assisted dying

Eastwood voted against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both seco​​nd reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

In a statement setting out her position, issued shortly before the bill’s second reading, Eastwood said: “This does not sit comfortably with me, given the prevalence of mental health issues throughout Northern Ireland and the fact that we are trying to desperately end deaths by suicide in this country.”

Before Politics

Born in Lisburn in October 1985, Eastwood attended St Joseph’s Primary School and later St Dominic’s Grammar School for Girls in Belfast.

She began studying law and politics at university, but dropped out to pursue an apprenticeship in retail management with Tesco. She subsequently returned to university.

Personal Life

In an April 2022 interview with 5050ni, Eastwood said her “mum and dad didn’t have a very good relationship. My dad was a very violent man and I remember thinking ‘we just need to get rid of this man and we need to get out of this situation’.”

Eastwood married Dale Shirlow on 8 June 2017.

Eastwood identifies as a Catholic.

Trivia

Polling day in the 2017 general election coincided with Eastwood’s wedding day. She voted while wearing her wedding dress.