Cunninghame North (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Cunninghame North
county constituency for the Scottish Parliament
Cunninghame North shown within the West Scotland electoral region and the region shown within Scotland
Current constituency
Created	1999
Party	Scottish National Party
MSP	Kenneth Gibson
Council area	North Ayrshire

Cunninghame North 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 West 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.

From the 2011 Scottish Parliament election the seat was affected by minor boundary changes. Its name remained Cunninghame North.^[1]

Electoral region

The other nine constituencies of the West Scotland region are Clydebank and Milngavie, Cunninghame South, Dumbarton, Eastwood, Greenock and Inverclyde, Paisley, Renfrewshire North and West, Renfrewshire South and Strathkelvin and Bearsden.

The region covers part of the Argyll and Bute council area, the East Dunbartonshire council area, the East Renfrewshire council area, the Inverclyde council area, North Ayrshire council area, the Renfrewshire council area and the West Dunbartonshire council area.

Constituency boundaries and council area

The Cunninghame North constituency was created at the same time as the Scottish Parliament, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of the existing constituency. In 2005, however, the Westminster (House of Commons) constituency was abolished in favour of new constituencies.^[2]

The rest of the North Ayrshire area is covered by the Cunninghame South constituency.

From the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, the electoral wards used to form this constituency are:

• In full: Ardrossan and Arran, Dalry and West Kilbride, Kilbirnie and Beith, North Coast and Cumbraes
• In part: Saltcoats and Stevenston (shared with Cunninghame South)

Constituency profile and voting patterns

Constituency profile

The Cunninghame North constituency covers a diverse mix of areas located towards the northern half of the North Ayrshire Council area, rising from the deprived working class towns of Ardrossan and Saltcoats in the south-west up to the affluent coastal towns of Fairlie, Skelmorlie, Largs and West Kilbride in the north-west. West of here, across the Firth of Clyde, sits the Island communities of Arran and Cumbrae, which are covered by the constituency. Along the east of the constituency is the more working-class Garnock Valley which comprises Kilbirnie, Beith and Dalry, towns which once specialised in the production of steel and textiles before the industries collapse across the 20th Century. The constituency is mostly working-class in nature, although this is contrasted by the affluence enjoyed in the more rural parts of the constituency and in areas such as Arran, Fairlie, Skelmorlie, West Kilbride and patches of Largs.^[3] The constituency returned a high unemployment rate of 6.4% at the 2011 census compared to the Scottish average of 4.8%.^[4]

Voting patterns

Throughout the early 20th Century Cunninghame North was a safe Unionist seat at the British Parliament, carried by the Scottish Unionists (and later the Scottish Conservatives) consistently as Bute and Northern Ayrshire from 1918 until the constituency's abolishment in 1983, where the newly established Cunninghame North seat was narrowly won Conservative John Corrie with a majority of 4.1%. In 1987 the constituency went Labour with a majority of 10.4%, with the Conservatives gradually losing ground in the constituency, eventually falling behind the Scottish National Party in 2001. Since then the Westminster seat of Cunninghame North, later North Ayrshire and Arran, has consistently returned Labour MP's to the British Parliament until being won by the SNP in 2015 on a swing of 23.3%. At the Scottish Parliament the Cunninghame North constituency voted Labour in both 1999 and 2003 before being won by the SNP's Kenneth Gibson by 48 votes in 2007, with some stipulating that had a set of damaged and rejected ballots from the Isle of Arran been counted the result might have been a Labour hold. In 2011 and 2016 Kenneth Gibson managed to build upon his narrow majority, bringing him ahead by 27.3% in 2016 - where the Conservatives marginally overtook the Labour Party into second place in the constituency for the first time since 1983.

Members of the Scottish Parliament

Kenneth Gibson of the Scottish National Party presently holds this seat. With a majority of just 48 over Labour incumbent Allan Wilson at the 2007 election, this was the most marginal seat in Holyrood. However, at the 2011 election, Gibson increased his majority over the Labour candidate to a much healthier 6,117.^[5]

Election		Member	Party
	1999	Allan Wilson	Labour
	2003
	2007	Kenneth Gibson	SNP
	2011
	2016

Election results

Scottish Parliament election, 2016: Cunninghame North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	SNP	Kenneth Gibson	16,587	51.9	-0.7
	Conservative	Jamie Greene	7,863	24.6	+10.9
	Labour	Johanna Baxter	6,735	21.1	-10.8
	Liberal Democrats	Charity Pierce	780	2.4	+0.6
Majority			8,724	27.3	+7.6
Turnout			31,965	57.4	+5.6
	SNP hold		Swing

^[6]

Scottish Parliament election, 2011: Cunninghame North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	SNP	Kenneth Gibson	15,539	52.6	+21.9
	Labour	Allan Wilson	9,422	31.9	-1.3
	Conservative	Maurice Golden	4,032	13.7	-4.4
	Liberal Democrats	Malika Punukollu	543	1.8	-4.2
Majority			6,117	20.7
Turnout			29,536	51.8
	SNP hold		Swing	10.3

Scottish Parliament election, 2007 Notional Result: Cunninghame North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	SNP	Kenneth Gibson	9,287	30.7
	Labour	Allan Wilson	9,247	30.6
	Conservative	Philip Lardner	5,459	18.1
	Liberal Democrats	Lewis Hutton	1,810	18.1
	Independent	Campbell Martin	4,423	14.6
Majority			40	0.1
	SNP hold		Swing

Scottish Parliament election, 2007: Cunninghame North
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 or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Kenneth Gibson		9,295	30.7	+3.7	9,995	32.8	+10.0
	Labour	N Allan Wilson		9,247	30.6	-8.3	8,947	29.4
	Conservative	Philip Lardner		5,466	18.1	-1.3	5,240	17.2	-2.2
	Independent	N Campbell Martin		4,423	14.6	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Lewis Hutton		1,810	6.0	-2.2	1,873	6.2	-1.0
	Scottish Green						910	3.0	-1.89
	Scottish Senior Citizens						737	2.4	-0.3
	Solidarity						584	1.9	+1.9
	Scottish Christian						459	1.5	+1.5
	BNP						432	1.4	+1.4
	Christian Peoples						218	0.7	+0.7
	NHSFirst						230	0.8	+0.8
	Socialist Labour						190	0.6	-1.3
	Scottish Unionist						185	0.6	-0.1
	Scottish Socialist						149	0.5	-5.5
	UKIP						151	0.5	-0.1
	Scottish Voice						82	0.3	+0.3
	Scottish Jacobite						67	0.2	+0.2
	Socialist Equality						18	0.1	+0.1
	SNP gain from Labour		Majority	48	0.1

Scottish Parliament election, 2003: Cunninghame North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Allan Wilson	11,142	38.92	-3.99
	SNP	Campbell Martin	7,755	27.09	-1.49
	Conservative	Peter Ramsay	5,542	19.36	-0.49
	Liberal Democrats	John Boyd	2,333	8.15	-0.51
	Scottish Socialist	Sean Scott	1,859	6.49	+6.49
Majority			3,387	11.83	-2.50
Turnout			28,631	51.76	-8.20
	Labour hold		Swing

Scottish Parliament election, 1999: Cunninghame North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Allan Wilson	14,369	42.90	N/A
	SNP	Kay Ullrich	9,573	28.58	N/A
	Conservative	Mike Johnston	6,649	19.85	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Calum Irving	2,900	8.66	N/A
Majority			4,796	14.32
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing

Controversy

The high number of rejected votes was particularly significant in Cunninghame North where the majority (48) was far smaller than the number of rejected papers (over 1,000). Additionally, ballot papers carried by boat from the Isle of Arran were damp when they arrived raising suggestions they may not have been transported securely. There were also questions about a discrepancy in the number of ballot papers that left Arran and the number that arrived at the count, though the returning officer later announced that a manual recount found no discrepancy.^[7] Allan Wilson, the former member for Cunninghame North was said to be discussing with his solicitor a potential legal challenge to the Cunninghame North result^[8] but no election petition was lodged.^[9]

Notes and references

1. Scottish Parliament Constituencies Order OPSI
2. See The 5th Periodical Report of the Boundary Commission for Scotland Archived September 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
3. 'Cunninghame North'
4. 'Area Profiles'
5. "Scotland elections". BBC News.
6. Statement of Persons Nominated North Ayrshire Council
7. Carrell, Severin (7 May 2007). "Blow to SNP coalition hopes as Lib Dems spurn independence deal". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-05-25.
8. "Holyrood vote may face challenges". BBC. 6 May 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-25.
9. No Labour challenge over election BBC Online, 25 May 2007