SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has not ruled out standing in the next Westminster election in Foyle.
Speculation is growing Prime Minister Boris Johnson will call a snap General Election before Christmas and some parties have begun planning for a poll.
Mr Eastwood is one of a number of SDLP candidates being considered to contest the seat in Foyle.
The SDLP narrowly lost the seat to Sinn Féin’s Elisha McCallion two years ago.
Other SDLP contenders include Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan and Councillor Sinead McLaughlin, a former a former chief executive of the Derry Chamber of Commerce.
The SDLP has refused to comment on any speculation about a future candidate in Foyle, but when asked if the party leader was planning to run, a party spokesman said: “Nothing has been ruled in or out.”
“The party has a process for selecting candidates which only starts when an election has been called, that hasn’t happened yet,” he added.
Mr Eastwood has in the past suggested the “door remained open” for the party’s former MP Mark Durkan to contest the seat in Foyle, despite standing for Fine Gael in the European election in May.
Mr Durkan was the Foyle MP for 12 years before losing his seat by just 169 votes to Sinn Féin’s Elisha McCallion in the 2017 Westminster elections.
Sources close to the party said it was “unlikely” that Mr Durkan would be on the ballot paper if a snap election is called.
Mr Eastwood polled more than 78,500 votes when he stood in May’s European election – the fourth highest first-preference vote – but did not get enough to take one of the three seats.
He was buoyed, though, by the party’s performance in the local election in Derry City and Strabane District Council, which claimed an extra seat and retook two places filled by former SDLP councillors who had left the party.
Sinn Féin lost ground in the elections, losing five seats in the council chamber.
Mr Eastwood at the time said the result showed his party’s electoral strategy was working.
He described the local elections as “a staging post” in the party’s battle to reclaim the Westminster seat in Foyle.
Tags: