The election was after
Labour Party prime minister James Callaghan lost a
vote of confidence by 311 votes to 310. The election was won by the
Conservative Party led by
Margaret Thatcher, and began a period of 18-year government by the party.
Ulster Unionist leader
Harry West failed to win a seat for the second time, and would resign later that year after failing to win a seat at the first
European Parliament election. The
Democratic Unionist Party increased its representation, and the
Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party had disbanded.
Frank Maguire was re-elected as an Independent Nationalist, beating the leaders of both the UUP and the new
United Ulster Unionist Party, as well as
Austin Currie, a member of the
SDLP standing without the support of the party. Maguire's death on 5 March 1981 led to a by-election won by
Bobby Sands, an
IRA prisoner who died later that year as a result of a
hunger strike. The
Representation of the People Act 1981 disqualified prisoners detained for more than a year from membership of the
House of Commons, so the resulting by-election was contested by Sands's election agent
Owen Carron, rather than by another prisoner on hunger strike. ==MPs elected==