Aberdeenshire West (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Aberdeenshire West
county constituency for the Scottish Parliament

Aberdeenshire West shown within the North East Scotland electoral region and the region shown within Scotland
Current constituency
Created	2011
Party	Scottish Conservative Party
MSP	Alexander Burnett
Council area	Aberdeenshire
Created from	Gordon, West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine

Aberdeenshire West is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. Also, however, it is one of ten constituencies in the North East Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to ten constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

Electoral region

The other nine constituencies of the North East Scotland region are Aberdeen Central, Aberdeen Donside, Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Aberdeenshire East, Angus North and Mearns, Angus South, Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Dundee City East and Dundee City West.

The region covers all of the Aberdeen City council area, the Aberdeenshire council area, the Angus council area, the Dundee City council area and part of the Moray council area.

Constituency boundaries and council area

Aberdeenshire is represented by five constituencies in the Scottish Parliament: Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Aberdeenshire East, Aberdeenshire West, Angus North and Mearns and Banffshire and Buchan Coast.

The electoral wards used in the creation of Aberdeenshire West are:

In full: West Garioch; Westhill and District; Huntly, Strathbogie and Howe of Alford; Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Donside; Banchory and Mid Deeside
In part: East Garioch (shared with Aberdeenshire East), Stonehaven and Lower Deeside (shared with Angus North and Mearns)

Constituency profile

The Aberdeenshire West constituency is an affluent rural constituency located along the western side of the Aberdeenshire council area. To the south of the constituency is Royal Deeside, which includes the affluent towns of Aboyne and Banchory and their surrounding rural areas. Along the western end of Royal Deeside is the Cairngorms National Park, covering Queen Elizabeth II's estate of Balmoral Castle. To the north of the constituency is the towns of Huntly, home to the Gordon Highlanders, and Westhill, which functions as a suburb to Aberdeen. Towards the edge of the constituency is the former Royal Burgh of Kintore, which has developed into an Aberdonian suburb, with a near doubling of the town's population throughout 2000s.

Oil and agriculture form a significant part of the local economy, with tourist interests around Royal Deeside. The constituency also covers the Royal Lochnagar distillery located to the west of Royal Deeside.

Member of the Scottish Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	2011	Dennis Robertson	Scottish National Party
	2016	Alexander Burnett	Scottish Conservative Party

Election results

Scottish Parliament Election 2016: Aberdeenshire West^[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Alexander Burnett	13,400	38.1	+17.0
	SNP	Dennis Robertson	12,500	35.5	-7.0
	Liberal Democrats	Mike Rumbles	7,262	20.6	-7.6
	Labour	Sarah Duncan	2,036	5.8	-2.4
Majority			900	2.6
Turnout			35,198	59.1
	Conservative gain from SNP		Swing	+12.0

Scottish Parliament election, 2011: Aberdeenshire West^[2]^[3]
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Dennis Robertson		12,186	42.55	+14.17	13,528	47.19
	Liberal Democrats	N Mike Rumbles		8,074	28.20	-12.72	4,375	15.26
	Conservative	Nanette Milne		6,027	21.05	-3.46	5,666	19.76
	Labour	Jean Morrison		2,349	8.20	+2.38	2,267	7.91
	Scottish Green						1,494	5.21
	Scottish Senior Citizens						358	1.25
	UKIP						324	1.13
	Scottish Christian						202	0.71
	BNP						151	0.53
	Independent - John Cox						70	0.24
	National Front						63	0.22
	Scottish Socialist						59	0.21
	Socialist Labour						53	0.19
	Independent - David Henderson						31	0.11
	Independent - Andrew McBride						14	0.05
	Solidarity						8	0.03
	Angus Independents Representatives						6	0.02
Informal votes				113			77
Total Valid votes				28,636			28,669
	SNP gain from Liberal Democrats		Majority	4,112	14.36

Scottish Parliament election, 2007 Notional Result: Aberdeenshire West
Party		Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats	12,332	40.9
	SNP	8,553	28.4
	Conservative	7,387	24.5
	Labour	1,753	5.8
	Others	111	0.4
Majority		3,779	12.5
	Liberal Democrats hold	Swing

Scottish Parliament election, 2007: West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democrats	Mike Rumbles	14,314	41.1	-4.9
	SNP	Dennis Robertson	9,144	26.3	+12.1
	Conservative	Stewart Whyte	8,604	24.7	-4.2
	Labour	James Noble	2,761	7.9	-0.7
Majority			5,170	14.8
Turnout			34,823	53.4	+2.8
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

References

↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/scotland-constituencies/S16000078
↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2011-05-14.
↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-16. Retrieved 2011-05-14.

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