Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (UK Parliament constituency)

Coordinates: 55°46′34″N 2°24′40″W / 55.776°N 2.411°W

Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk in Scotland.
Current constituency
Created	2005
Member of parliament	Calum Kerr (SNP)
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	Scotland

Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in the south of Scotland within the Scottish Borders council area. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system of voting. The incumbent MP is Calum Kerr of the SNP.

A mostly rural seat, it includes the towns of Duns, Eyemouth, Galashiels, Hawick, Jedburgh, Kelso, Melrose and Selkirk.

Boundaries

As created by the Fifth Review of the Boundary Commission for Scotland the constituency is one of six covering the Dumfries and Galloway council area, the Scottish Borders council area and the South Lanarkshire council area. The other five constituencies are: Dumfries and Galloway, Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow, Lanark and Hamilton East and Rutherglen and Hamilton West.

The Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk constituency covers part of the Scottish Borders council area. The rest of the council area is covered by the Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale constituency, which also covers part of the Dumfries and Galloway council area and part of the South Lanarkshire council area.

The Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk constituency is predominantly rural, and includes the towns of Duns, Eyemouth, Galashiels, Hawick, Jedburgh and Selkirk.

History

Michael Moore held the seat from its creation in 2005, and was MP for the predecessor seat of Tweeddale, Ettrick & Lauderdale from 1997-2005. The seat and its predecessor seats had a strong Liberal presence since the 1960s, with former Liberal leader David Steel having represented the seat from 1965 to 1997. Historically, the Conservative Party has been the main challenger to the seat, and they currently hold the equivalent Holyrood seat. In the 2015 General Election, Moore and the Liberal Democrats were pushed into third place in the constituency and the seat was narrowly won by Calum Kerr of the Scottish National Party over the Scottish Conservative Party candidate, John Lamont.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member[1]	Party
	2005	Michael Moore	Liberal Democrat
	2010
	2015	Calum Kerr	SNP

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk was the eighth most marginal result at the 2015 UK general election and the most marginal result in Scotland, with SNP candidate Calum Kerr gaining the constituency from the Liberal Democrats behind the Conservatives by 328 votes.^[2]

General Election 2015: Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk^[3][4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	SNP	Calum Kerr[5]	20,145	36.6	+27.4
	Conservative	John Lamont[6]	19,817	36.0	+2.2
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Moore[6]	10,294	18.7	−26.7
	Labour	Kenryck Lloyd Jones[7]	2,700	4.9	−5.3
	UKIP	Peter Neilson[7]	1,316	2.4	+1.2
	Scottish Green	Pauline Stewart[8]	631	1.1	N/A
	Independent	Jesse Rae[7]	135	0.2	N/A
Majority			328	0.6	n/a
Turnout			55,038	74.2	+7.8
	SNP gain from Liberal Democrat		Swing	+27.1

Michael Moore.

General Election 2010: Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk^[9][10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Moore	22,230	45.4	+3.5
	Conservative	John Lamont	16,555	33.8	+4.9
	Labour	Ian Miller	5,003	10.2	−5.7
	SNP	Paul Wheelhouse	4,497	9.2	+0.6
	UKIP	Sherry Fowler	595	1.2	−0.1
	Scottish Jacobite	Chris Black	134	0.3	+0.3
Majority			5,675	11.6
Turnout			49,014	66.4	+2.3
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing	−0.7

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Moore	18,993	41.8
	Conservative	John Lamont	13,092	28.8
	Labour	Sam Held	7,206	15.9
	SNP	Aileen Orr	3,885	8.6
	Liberal	John Hein	916	2.0
	Scottish Socialist	Graeme McIver	695	1.5
	UKIP	Peter Neilson	601	1.3
Majority			5,901	13.0
Turnout			45,388	63.3
	Liberal Democrats win (new seat)

References

1. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 2)
2. https://ukgeneralelection.com/2015/05/10/the-new-election-battleground/
3. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-08-24. 9Aug15
5. Calum Kerr, Biography on SNP website, retrieved March 2015
6. "UK ELECTION RESULTS". electionresults.blogspot.co.uk.
7. "Candidates for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk in the 2015 UK General Election". yournextmp.com.
8. "SCOTTISH GREENS CONFIRM BIGGEST SLATE OF WESTMINSTER CANDIDATES". scottishgreens.org.uk.
9. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
10. "BBC News - Election 2010 - Constituency - Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk". bbc.co.uk.
11. "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.