Hanna to become new SDLP leader at party conference

Claire Hanna will be installed as the SDLP's next leader at its annual conference this afternoon.

She was the only candidate when nominations closed last month to succeed Colum Eastwood.

Mr Eastwood announced in August that he was stepping down from the leadership.

In her first speech as leader Ms Hanna, the MP for South Belfast and Mid Down, will tell delegates that Irish unity will mean a new Northern Ireland "along the way".

The SDLP has seen its vote share squeezed in recent elections, alongside a growth in support for Sinn Féin amongst nationalists.

It is now the fifth largest party at Stormont and provides the official opposition.

Ms Hanna was born in Co Galway, but her family moved to Belfast before she started school.

She has deep roots in the party. Her father was a senior official in the SDLP and her mother served as a minister in one of the first power-sharing executives in 2002.

In a promotional video, she said she was proud to become the leader of a party that had been "a big part of my life for as long as I can remember".

"We're centre left, we're anti-sectarian, we have a proud heritage of ideas, peace building and reconciliation."

She said that although the party was building towards a "new Ireland" the SDLP was not just a nationalist party, but was one founded on social democratic principles as well.