Former RCN chief executive elected as new MP for Sinn Féin

Ms Cullen said she would “work night and day” in her new seat in Northern Ireland, which it was revealed she had won by more than 4,000 votes in the early hours of this morning.

“I will work night and day for every single person in Fermanagh and South Tyrone”

Pat Cullen

She received a total of 24,844 votes, beating Ulster Unionist Party candidate Diana Armstrong  by 4,571 votes.

Ms Cullen had also beaten the vote share of her predecessor, Michelle Gildernew, who received over 21,000 votes in the 2019 election.

The election result means Fermanagh and South Tyrone is no longer the most marginal constituency in the UK. It had previously been decided by just 57 votes in 2019.

On her appointment, Ms Cullen said: “Honestly I just cannot thank everyone enough, who put their trust in me to actually vote for me, and also for those people who didn’t vote for me this time.

“I will work night and day for every single person in Fermanagh and South Tyrone,” she said.

Ms Cullen announced in May that she would be stepping down early as chief executive and general secretary of the RCN, in order to pursue a political career.

Her shock announcement on 29 May came just hours before the start of RCN Congress. She had been due to be departing the role at the end of this year.

Ms Cullen had been leading the union since April 2021, first in an acting capacity and then interim.

During her tenure, she oversaw UK-wide nursing strikes – the first in the RCN’s history – the nursing response to the Covid-19 pandemic and a call for a separate pay spine to be introduced for nurses.

She has previously said that stepping down from the RCN and entering politics was the “hardest decision to make”.

Sinn Féin is now the party in Northern Ireland with the most MPs, despite the fact that they do do not take their seats at Westminster.

This practice dates back many years, when the party’s first-elected members adopted the abstentionist position.

When asked last night by Irish News if she would take her seat in Westminster, Ms Cullen suggested that she would not.

She said: “For these past two years, I’ve been voted as one of the top 100 women in Westminster, the most influential women, and I’ve been voted by Westminster.

“I never sat on a green bench once to get there,” she told the newspaper.

“But what I did was I brought them to my table and made sure that they delivered for the nurses, and that’s what I’ll do for the people of Fermanagh and South Tyrone.”

Ms Cullen has came under fire from her rivals for living in South Belfast, rather than Fermanagh and South Tyrone.

Pressed on whether she would move to her new constituency, she said: “I’ve said before, I represented nurses right through out – from Aberdeen, right through to Bristol from the other side.

“I didn’t live in any of those areas but I made sure that their voice was heard and that’s what I’ll do for the people of Fermanagh and South Tyrone.”