Motherwell and Wishaw (Scottish Parliament constituency)
Motherwell and Wishaw | |
---|---|
burgh constituency for the Scottish Parliament | |
Motherwell and Wishaw shown within the Central Scotland electoral region and the region shown within Scotland | |
Current constituency | |
Created | 1999 |
Party | Scottish National Party |
MSP | Clare Adamson |
Council area | North Lanarkshire |
Motherwell and Wishaw is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality (first past the post) method of election. Also, however, it is one of nine constituencies in the Central Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Electoral region
The other eight constituencies of the Central Scotland region are Airdrie and Shotts, Coatbridge and Chryston, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, East Kilbride, Falkirk East, Falkirk West, Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse and Uddingston and Bellshill.
The region covers all of the Falkirk council area, all of the North Lanarkshire council area and part of the South Lanarkshire council area.
Constituency boundaries and council area
The constituency was created at the same time as the Scottish Parliament, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of an existing Westminster constituency. In 2005, however, Scottish Westminster (House of Commons) constituencies were mostly replaced with new constituencies.[1]
The Holyrood constituency is one of five covering the North Lanarkshire council area, the others being Airdrie and Shotts, Coatbridge and Chryston, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth and Uddingston and Bellshill. All five are within the Central Scotland electoral region.
The electoral wards used in the creation of Motherwell and Wishaw are:
- In full: Motherwell West, Motherwell South East and Ravenscraig, Murdostoun, Wishaw
- In part: Motherwell North (shared with Uddingston and Bellshill)
Member of the Scottish Parliament
The seat had always elected Labour MSPs (until 2016), it was a safe Labour seat from 1999 until 2011. The MSP from 1999 was the former First Minister, Lord Jack McConnell. The MSP John Pentland won the seat on McConnell's retirement in 2011, but the national SNP landslide of that year turned it for the first time from safe Labour into a Labour-SNP marginal with just two percentage points separating Pentland and his nearest opponent, the SNP's Clare Adamson. Adamson defeated Pentland to gain the seat in 2016.
Election | Member | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
1999 | Jack McConnell | Labour | |
2003 | |||
2007 | |||
2011 | John Pentland | Labour | |
2016 | Clare Adamson | SNP |
Election results
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
SNP | Clare Adamson | 15,291 | 52.5 | +11.1 | |
Labour | John Pentland | 9,068 | 31.1 | -12.7 | |
Conservative | Meghan Gallacher | 3,991 | 13.7 | +6.5 | |
Liberal Democrats | Yvonne Finlayson | 761 | 2.6 | +1.1 | |
Majority | 6,223 | 21.4 | |||
Turnout | 29,111 | 51.0 | +6.5 | ||
SNP gain from Labour | Swing | +11.9 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | John Pentland | 10,713 | 43.8 | -4.3 | |
SNP | Clare Adamson | 10,126 | 41.4 | +16.0 | |
Conservative | Robert Burgess | 1,753 | 7.2 | -0.4 | |
Scottish Senior Citizens | John Swinburne | 945 | 3.9 | -1.9 | |
Scottish Christian | Tom Selfridge | 547 | 2.2 | -2.8 | |
Liberal Democrats | Beverley Hope | 367 | 1.5 | -4.5 | |
Majority | 587 | 2.4 | -20.3 | ||
Turnout | 24,451 | 45 | -3.5 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | N/A | |||
Scottish Senior Citizens, Scottish Christians and Liberal Democrats all gained under 5% of the poll and thus lost their deposit
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | 12,675 | 48.4 | |||
SNP | 6,701 | 25.6 | |||
Conservative | 2,165 | 8.3 | |||
Liberal Democrats | 1,563 | 6.0 | |||
Others | 3,102 | 11.8 | |||
Majority | 5,974 | 22.8 | |||
Labour hold | Swing | ||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Jack McConnell | 12,574 | 48.1 | -6.0 | |
SNP | Marion Fellows | 6,636 | 25.4 | +7.8 | |
Conservative | Diane Huddleston | 1,990 | 7.6 | -2.4 | |
Scottish Senior Citizens | John Swinburne | 1,702 | 6.5 | +0.2 | |
Liberal Democrats | Stuart Douglas | 1,570 | 6.0 | +1.8 | |
Scottish Christian | Thomas Selfridge | 1,491 | 5.7 | +5.7 | |
ATP | Richard Leat | 187 | 0.7 | 0.7 | |
Majority | 5928 | 22.7 | -3.5 | ||
Rejected ballots | 970 | {{{change}}} | |||
Turnout | 26,150 | 48.5 | -0.5 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | N/A | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Jack McConnell | 13,739 | 54.12 | +8.21 | |
SNP | Lloyd Quinan | 4,480 | 17.65 | -11.62 | |
Conservative | Mark Nolan | 2,542 | 10.01 | -2.17 | |
Scottish Socialist | John Milligan | 1,961 | 7.72 | N/A | |
Scottish Senior Citizens | John Swinburne | 1,597 | 6.29 | +6.29 | |
Liberal Democrats | Keith Legg | 1,069 | 4.21 | -2.04 | |
Majority | 9,259 | 36.47 | +19.84 | ||
Turnout | 25,388 | 49.03 | -8.63 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | N/A | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Jack McConnell | 13,925 | 45.9 | N/A | |
SNP | Jim McGuigan | 8,879 | 29.3 | N/A | |
Conservative | William Gibson | 3,694 | 12.2 | N/A | |
Socialist Labour | John Milligan | 1,941 | 6.4 | N/A | |
Liberal Democrats | Roger Spillane | 1,895 | 6.2 | N/A | |
Majority | 5,046 | 16.6 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 30,334 | 57.1 | N/A | ||
Labour win (new seat) | |||||
Footnotes
Preceded by Fife Central |
Constituency represented by the First Minister 2001–2007 |
Succeeded by Gordon |