
Lagan Valley MP Sorcha Eastwood has ruled herself out succeeding Naomi Long as Alliance party leader.
Eastwood said her name would “absolutely” not be in the mix to succeed Long, when she steps down.
The Lagan Valley MP said her current role at Westminster is “her first love”.
Eastwood was first elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2022, then her Westminster seat in the 2024 General Election.
Long has been the leader of the Alliance Party since 2016 and spent 10 years as the party’s deputy leader before that.
Eastwood said seeing Long become the MP for East Belfast in 2010 made her consider getting involved in politics.
“Naomi has provided such incredible leadership over a really trying and difficult period in our politics” she told the Red Lines podcast.
“There’s a lot more to come there from her – a lot more that she wants to see delivered.”
In October the Upper Bann MLA Eóin Tennyson was elected as the party’s deputy leader succeeding Stephen Farry.
“Naomi and Eóin are doing a brilliant job, and fair play to them. It’s a big job to step up into that role and Eoin has done really, really, well in it.”
Commons’ ‘class divide’
Eastwood said her work as MP was the “most important thing”.
“Being an MP is not an easy job. It is a huge role.
“In some ways you are pulling a lot of the party with you because you are making big decisions on tax, national security, and foreign policy”, Eastwood said.
But she also said there was a side of Westminster politics that she did not like.
“There is a real class divide between a lot of people in that building and the people who are coming into the building,” she added.
“It’s a palace – the Palace of Westminster.”

Eastwood said that coming from a working class background, “that was a real smack up the face for me”.
“Frankly, there’s a lot of people who maybe love that pomp and ceremony and see that as maybe part of the environs they should be accustomed to.
“That’s not my vibe at all. You are in a building where some of the richest people, people with a lot of personal and family wealth behind them are on the frontbench of both sides.
“They have made decisions that have impoverished people who I represent. They have been at the heart of some of the most impactful and damaging decisions in the last 15, 20 years.”
Andrew Tate legal proceedings
Eastwood spoke again of her concerns that young women were being deterred from entering politics and public life because of directed online abuse.
In January, the Lagan Valley MP’s solicitors said they were issuing legal proceedings against the controversial influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan over online posts.
“It worries me that women are opting out of positions, whether it is in the public square, whether it is in elected politics, and that cannot be a situation that we countenance,” she said.