The Shankill is currently part of the Belfast West constituencies for the Northern Ireland Assembly and Westminster. At the Assembly the Shankill is represented by four Sinn Féin MLAs and one each from the Social Democratic and Labour Party and the People Before Profit Alliance. At Westminster, since 1966, when the seat was lost by the last sitting unionist member Jim Kilfedder, it has also always had a nationalist or republican MP. The abstentionist policy of Sinn Féin MP Gerry Adams, who was West Belfast's MP until his resignation in 2011, led to an attempted legal challenge by local councillor Frank McCoubrey who argued that Shankill residents were being denied their right to representation. The case was not a success.