 Langhammer was elected to Newtownabbey Borough Council as a "Newtownabbey Labour" candidate for Macedon electoral area in 1993.The Campaign for Labour Representation disbanded, having accepted that the British Labour Party had no intention of organising in Northern Ireland, and Langhammer instead began lobbying the Irish Labour Party to do so.Langhammer was initially recognised as the leader of the Labour coalition, formed in 1996 to contest elections to the Northern Ireland Forum.