Perth (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Perth
Former county constituency for the Scottish Parliament
Perth shown within the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region and the region shown within Scotland
Former constituency
Created	1999
Abolished	2011
Council area	Perth and Kinross
Replaced by	Perthshire North Perthshire South and Kinross-shire

Perth was 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 Mid Scotland and Fife 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.

For the Scottish Parliament election, 2011, the constituency of Perth, will be abolished and replaced by Perthshire North and Perthshire South and Kinross-shire.

Electoral region

See also Mid Scotland and Fife Scottish Parliament region

The other eight constituencies of the South of Scotland region are Dunfermline East, Dunfermline West, Fife Central, Fife North East, Kirkcaldy, Ochil, Stirling and Tayside North.

The region covers all of the Clackmannanshire council area, all of the Fife council area, all of the Perth and Kinross council area, all of the Stirling council area and parts of the Angus 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 a pre-existing Westminster (House of Commons) constituency. The area has been covered by Westminster constituencies with differing names but similar boundaries since 1918, but in 2005 Scottish Westminster constituencies were mostly replaced with new constituencies.^[1] Most of the Perth Westminster constituency was merged into Ochil and South Perthshire. Part, including the town of Perth, was merged into Perth and North Perthshire.

The Holyrood constituency of Perth covers a central portion of the Perth and Kinross council area. The rest of the council area is covered by two Mid Scotland and Fife constituencies, Ochil and Tayside North, and one North East Scotland constituency, Angus.

The Ochil constituency, to the south of the Perth constituency, also covers the Clackmannanshire council area and a south-eastern portion of the Stirling council area.

Tayside North, to the north of the Perth constituency, also covers a northern portions of the Angus council area.

The Angus constituency, to the north-east of the Perth constituency, also covers a southern portion of the Angus council area and north-western and north-eastern portions of the City of Dundee council area.

Boundary review

See Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions from 2011

Following their First Periodic review of constituencies to the Scottish Parliament in time for the next election in 2011, the Boundary Commission for Scotland has created two newly drawn seats to replace Perth. These will be known as Perthshire North and Perthshire South and Kinross-shire.

Constituency profile

The constituency covered a combination of small prosperous towns and rich agricultural land. It included the town of Perth and the towns of Bridge of Earn, Auchterarder, Crieff and Comrie. It was a relatively prosperous, largely rural, Lowland seat on the fringe of the Highlands, with successful livestock farming, fruit-growing and tourism interests. Unemployment is relatively low and half the electorate lived in the town of Perth itself.

At Westminster elections the area is traditionally Conservative, and Conservatives have held seats representing the area during most of the period since World War II. Scottish National Party (SNP) tradition is also strong in the area, however, and the SNP has contested every parliamentary election in the area in the same post war period. In the Perth and Kinross Westminster by-election in 1995, the SNP's Roseanna Cunningham won the Perth and Kinross Westminster seat from the Conservatives with an 11.5% swing. She then held the seat in the 1997 United Kingdom general election and went on to be elected to Holyrood in the 1999 Scottish Parliament election. She has represented the Scottish Parliamentary constituency and its equivalent successor constituency since. Before the constituency's abolishment at the British Parliament in 2005, the Perth Westminster constituency became the most marginal constituency in Scotland in 2001, with the SNP's Annabelle Ewing narrowly holding the constituency for the SNP, with the Conservatives missing out by 48 votes.

The constituency's successor seat of Perthshire South and Kinross-shire, established by the 2011 First Periodic Review of Scottish Parliamentary constituencies, was comfortably held by the SNP's Roseanna Cunningham at the 2011 Scottish Parliamentary election, who polled ahead of Conservative challenger Elizabeth Smith by 22.96% of the vote. At the 2016 Scottish Parliamentary election there was a 9.5% swing in the constituency from the SNP to the Conservatives, with Elizabeth Smith missing out by just 3.93% of the vote.

Member of the Scottish Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1999	Roseanna Cunningham	Scottish National Party
	2003
	2007
	2011	constituency abolished: replaced by Perthshire South and Kinross-shire

Election results

Scottish Parliament election, 2007: Perth[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 or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Roseanna Cunningham		13,751	39.4	+5.5	11,962	34.20
	Conservative	Elizabeth Smith		11,256	32.3	+0.7	9,768	27.93
	Liberal Democrats	Peter Barret		4,767	13.7	+2.5	3,854	11.02
	Labour	Doug Maughan		4,513	13.0	-4.8	5,535	15.83
	Free Scotland	Jim Fairlie		575	1.6	+1.6	157	0.45
	Scottish Green						1,415	4.05
	Scottish Senior Citizens						687	1.96
	BNP						328	0.94
	Scottish Christian						309	0.88
	Solidarity						268	0.77
	Socialist Labour						154	0.44
	UKIP						133	0.38
	Scottish Voice						111	0.32
	Publican Party						102
	Scottish Socialist						96	0.27
	Christian Peoples						93	0.27
Informal votes				768			768
Total Valid votes				34,862			34,972
	SNP hold		Majority	2,495	7.2	+4.9

Scottish Parliament election, 2003: Perth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	SNP	Roseanna Cunningham	10,717	33.9	-2.4
	Conservative	Alexander Stewart	9,990	31.6	+0.7
	Labour	Rob Ball	5,629	17.8	-5.5
	Liberal Democrats	Gordon Campbell	3,530	11.2	+1.7
	Scottish Socialist	Philip Stott	982	3.1	+3.1
	Independent	Thomas Burns	509	1.6	+1.6
	Scottish People's	Kenneth Buchanan	257	0.8	+0.8
Majority			727	2.3	-3.1
Turnout			31,614	51
	SNP hold		Swing	-2.4

Scottish Parliament election, 1999: Perth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	SNP	Roseanna Cunningham	13,570	36.3	N/A
	Conservative	Ian Stevenson	11,543	30.9	N/A
	Labour	Jilian Richards	8,725	23.3	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Chic Brodie	3,558	9.5	N/A
Majority			2,027	5.4	N/A
Turnout			37,396	60.6
	SNP hold		Swing	N/A

Footnotes

1. See The 5th Periodical Report of the Boundary Commission for Scotland
2. Regional votes 2007
3. Constituency votes 2007