Ochil and South Perthshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Coordinates: 56°16′52″N 3°32′42″W / 56.281°N 3.545°W
Ochil and South Perthshire | |
---|---|
County constituency for the House of Commons | |
Boundary of Ochil and South Perthshire in Scotland. | |
Subdivisions of Scotland | Clackmannanshire/Perth and Kinross |
Current constituency | |
Created | 2005 |
Member of parliament | Luke Graham (Conservative) |
Created from | Ochil and Perth |
Overlaps | |
European Parliament constituency | Scotland |
Ochil and South Perthshire is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
The constituency was created for the 2005 general election as a result of the Fifth Review of the Boundary Commission for Scotland.[1]
Boundaries
Council areas grouped by the Fifth Review |
Clackmannanshire and Perth and Kinross |
The Clackmannanshire council area; and the Perth and Kinross council wards of Strathtay, Strathearn, Strathallan, Almond & Earn, and Kinross-shire.[2]
The constituency was created to cover the Clackmannanshire council area and a southern portion of the Perth and Kinross council area. Perth and North Perthshire was created, at the same time, to cover the rest of the Perth and Kinross council area.
Prior to the 2005 election, the council areas had been covered by the Angus, Ochil, Perth and North Tayside constituencies. The Perth constituency was entirely within the Perth and Kinross council area, the North Tayside constituency covered a northern portion of the Perth and Kinross council area and a northern portion of the Angus council area, the Angus constituency covered a small southeastern portion of the Perth and Kinross council area, a southern portion of the Angus council area, and northern portions of the Dundee City council area, and the Ochil constituency covered another southeastern portion of the Perth and Kinross council area, the whole of the Clackmannanshire council area and a southeastern portion of the Stirling council area.
Constituency profile and voting patterns
Constituency profile
The Ochil and South Perthshire constituency covers the rural south of the Perth and Kinross council area south of the River Tay, running down through the Ochil Hills into the more industrial Clackmannanshire council area to the south. It is an affluent constituency, with some deprivation in Alloa, Tullibody, Alva and Tillicoultry in southern Clackmannanshire.
Agriculture and tourism form an important part of the local economy in the north of the constituency in southern Perth and Kinross-shire, housing affluent resort towns such as Auchterarder, Crieff and Kinross. Clackmannanshire is better known for its light industry and breweries dotted along the course of the River Forth and its northern tributary streams.
Voting patterns
The Ochil and South Perthshire constituency was formed from elements of the old Ochil and Perth constituencies. Perth was traditionally a strong area of support for the Conservative Party until the party's wipeout in Scotland at the 1997 general election, from then onwards; the area usually voted SNP. Ochil covered the counties of Kinross-shire and Clackmannanshire, alongside some of the more industrialised parts of Stirlingshire, traditionally a SNP-Labour marginal. When Ochil and South Perthshire was first formed, it was thought of as a SNP-Labour marginal; however, the SNP failed to win the constituency when it was created in 2005, and at the subsequent general election in 2010. Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh gained the seat from Gordon Banks of the Labour Party in a landslide victory across Scotland at the 2015 general election as they won 56 of Scotland's 59 parliamentary seats. At the 2017 general election, Ahmed-Sheikh lost the constituency to Luke Graham of the Conservative Party.
At the 2017 local election all wards in southern Perth and Kinross-shire voted Conservative by a good margin. The result in Clackmannanshire was mixed, with the SNP forming the largest party across the county as a whole but missing out to the Conservatives in Dollar to the north-east of the council area and missing out to Labour in northern Alloa. The Conservatives came first across Ochil and South Perthshire on the whole, with the SNP in second place.
Members of Parliament
Election | Member[3] | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
2005 | Gordon Banks | Labour | |
2015 | Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh | Scottish National Party | |
2017 | Luke Graham | Conservative |
Election results
Elections in the 2010s
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Luke Graham | 22,469 | 41.5 | ||
SNP | Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh | 19,110 | 35.3 | ||
Labour | Joanne Ross | 10,847 | 20.0 | ||
Liberal Democrats | Iliyan Stefanov | 1,742 | 3.2 | ||
Majority | 3,359 | 6.2 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 54,168 | 70.6 | |||
Conservative gain from SNP | Swing | ||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
SNP | Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh | 26,620 | 46.0 | +18.4 | |
Labour | Gordon Banks | 16,452 | 28.4 | -9.5 | |
Conservative | Luke Graham | 11,987 | 20.7 | +0.2 | |
Liberal Democrats | Iliyan Stefanov | 1,481 | 2.6 | -8.8 | |
UKIP | Martin Gray | 1,331 | 2.3 | +0.9 | |
Majority | 10,168 | 17.6 | |||
Turnout | 57,871 | 74.8 | +7.6 | ||
SNP gain from Labour | Swing | +13.9 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Gordon Banks | 19,131 | 37.9 | +6.5 | |
SNP | Annabelle Ewing | 13,944 | 27.6 | -2.3 | |
Conservative | Gerald Michaluk | 10,342 | 20.5 | -1.0 | |
Liberal Democrats | Graeme Littlejohn | 5,754 | 11.4 | -1.9 | |
UKIP | David Bushby | 689 | 1.4 | +0.8 | |
Scottish Green | Hilary Charles | 609 | 1.2 | -0.9 | |
Majority | 5,187 | 10.3 | +8.8 | ||
Turnout | 50,469 | 67.2 | +1.2 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | +4.4 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Gordon Banks | 14,645 | 31.4 | −2.0 | |
SNP | Annabelle Ewing | 13,957 | 29.9 | −1.7 | |
Conservative | Elizabeth Smith | 10,021 | 21.5 | −0.6 | |
Liberal Democrats | Catherine Whittingham | 6,218 | 13.3 | +2.8 | |
Scottish Green | George Baxter | 978 | 2.1 | N/A | |
Scottish Socialist | Iain Campbell | 420 | 0.9 | −0.9 | |
UKIP | David Bushby | 275 | 0.6 | N/A | |
Free Scotland | Maitland Kelly | 183 | 0.4 | N/A | |
Majority | 688 | 1.5 | |||
Turnout | 46,697 | 66.0 | +3.6 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | −0.2 |
Notes and references
- ↑ "Boundary Commission for Scotland website". Archived from the original on 2007-09-21.
- ↑ "Seat Details". www.electoralcalculus.co.uk.
- ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "O"
- ↑ "General Election: SNP reselects 54 MPs". www.scotsman.com.
- ↑ "General Election 2017 Candidates". www.scottishlabour.org.uk.
- ↑ "Lee Scott back for Ilford North. Vicky Ford in final Chelmsford three. Tatton finalists named. The latest candidate selections and shortlists. - Conservative Home".
- ↑ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ↑ Council, Depute Returning Officer, Clackmannanshire. "Westminster Parliament election - 2015-05-07". www.clacks.gov.uk.
- ↑ "UK Polling Report". ukpollingreport.co.uk.
- ↑ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ↑ "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- ↑ "Election 2005; Result: Ochil and South Perthshire". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 2005-05-06. Retrieved 2008-07-26.