Glasgow North East (UK Parliament constituency)

Glasgow North East is a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (at Westminster). It was first contested at the 2005 general election. The current Member of Parliament (MP) is Anne McLaughlin of the SNP who won the seat back from Labour's Paul Sweeney at the 2019 snap general election, overturning a majority of 242.

Glasgow North East
Burgh constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Glasgow North East in Scotland
Subdivisions of ScotlandCity of Glasgow
Major settlementsPossilpark, Springburn
Current constituency
Created2005
Member of ParliamentAnne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party)
Created fromGlasgow Springburn
Glasgow Maryhill

From the seat's creation until 2009, the constituency was represented by Michael Martin, previously MP for Glasgow Springburn from 1979. Martin was elected Speaker of the House of Commons in October 2000, but in May 2009 he announced that he would be resigning as Speaker on 21 June 2009 because of his perceived role in the MPs' expenses controversy. He was the first Speaker in 300 years to be forced out of office by a motion of no confidence.[1] He also resigned as an MP the following day, resulting in a by-election on 12 November 2009, which was won by Willie Bain of the Labour Party with 59% of the vote; Bain retained the seat the following year at the 2010 UK general election, but was defeated by Anne McLaughlin of the SNP in 2015.

Boundaries

The constituency contains two Glasgow City Council wards in full: Dennistoun and Springburn & Robroyston; and also partially covers Canal, Calton, East Centre and North East wards.

The constituency partially overlaps with two Scottish Parliament seats: Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn and Glasgow Provan.

Glasgow North East is one of seven constituencies covering the Glasgow City council area. All are entirely within the council area.

Prior to the 2005 general election, the city area was covered by ten constituencies, two of which straddled the boundaries of other council areas. The North East constituency includes most of the former Glasgow Springburn constituency and a small part of the former Glasgow Maryhill constituency.[2]

Constituency profile

The population of the constituency was 88,156 at the time of the 2011 UK Census. It comprises the communities of Ruchill, Hamiltonhill, Possilpark, Port Dundas, Sighthill, Lambhill, Colston, Milton, Springburn, Royston, Balornock, Barmulloch, Blackhill, Dennistoun, Germiston, Haghill, Carntyne, Robroyston, Provanmill, Riddrie, Hogganfield, Millerston and Ruchazie.

On commonly used measures like unemployment rate, people eligible for free school meals and educational attainment, Glasgow North East is one of the most deprived constituencies in the United Kingdom. In addition, some parts of the constituency have significant gang-related violence and drug-related crime. These issues are significant across the constituency, but some areas have particular problems: heroin addiction in Possilpark, difficult to let and maintain, system-built tower blocks at Sighthill and Red Road, the latter once known as the tallest public housing in Europe, have now been demolished and the areas are undergoing regeneration, a mixture of pre and post-war housing schemes in Springburn and the post-war scheme in Milton, with housing but few amenities and itself the product of earlier attempts at slum clearance. However, the innermost area of Dennistoun retains the original Victorian tenement grid streets. Dennistoun has seen some gentrification, and is becoming popular with students and young professionals, while to the north there have been some new private housing developments on the outskirts of Glasgow at Robroyston and Hogganfield.

Voting pattern

Glasgow North East and its predecessor constituencies had been represented by MPs from the Labour Party with large majorities from the 1935 general election until 2015, when the seat was gained by the SNP during their landslide victory on the largest swing recorded at the general election that year of 39.3% from Labour to SNP. At the following election held just two years later, the seat was regained on a 12% swing by Labour's Paul Sweeney with a narrow majority of 242 votes (0.7%). However, the SNP regained the constituency in 2019.

According to the British Election Study, it is the most left-wing seat in the country.[3]

It had the lowest turnout of any seat at the 2017 United Kingdom general election.

Members of Parliament
ElectionMember[4] PartyNotes
2005 Michael Martin Speaker Previously MP for Glasgow Springburn from 1979. Resigned the Speakership and from Parliament in 2009
2009 by-election Willie Bain Labour
2015 Anne McLaughlin SNP
2017 Paul Sweeney Labour Co-op
2019 Anne McLaughlin SNP

Election results

Elections in the 2010s
General election 2019: Glasgow North East[5][6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
SNP Anne McLaughlin 15,911 46.9 +4.7
Labour Co-op Paul Sweeney 13,363 39.4 -3.5
Conservative Lauren Bennie 3,558 10.5 -2.4
Liberal Democrats Nicolas Moohan 1,093 3.2 +1.2
Majority 2,548 7.5 N/A
Turnout 33,925 55.5 +2.5
SNP gain from Labour Co-op Swing +4.1
General election 2017: Glasgow North East[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour Co-op Paul Sweeney 13,637 42.9 +9.2
SNP Anne McLaughlin 13,395 42.2 -15.9
Conservative Jack Wylie 4,106 12.9 +8.2
Liberal Democrats Daniel Donaldson 637 2.0 +1.2
Majority 242 0.7 N/A
Turnout 31,775 53.0 -3.8
Labour Co-op gain from SNP Swing +12.6
General election 2015: Glasgow North East[8][9]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
SNP Anne McLaughlin 21,976 58.1 +44.0
Labour Willie Bain 12,754 33.7 -34.6
Conservative Annie Wells 1,769 4.7 -0.6
Scottish Green Zara Kitson[10] 615 1.6 New
Liberal Democrats Eileen Baxendale[11] 300 0.8 -6.9
CISTA Geoff Johnson 225 0.6 New
TUSC Jamie Cocozza[12] 218 0.6 0.0
Majority 9,222 24.4 N/A
Turnout 37,857 56.8 +7.7
SNP gain from Labour Swing +39.31

1 As noted at the top of the article, this was the largest swing in the 2015 SNP Landslide.

General election 2010: Glasgow North East[13][14][15]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour Willie Bain 20,100 68.3 N/A
SNP Billy McAllister 4,158 14.1 -3.6
Liberal Democrats Eileen Baxendale 2,262 7.7 N/A
Conservative Ruth Davidson 1,569 5.3 N/A
BNP Walter Hamilton 798 2.7 -0.5
TUSC Graham Campbell 187 0.6 New
Scottish Socialist Kevin McVey 179 0.6 -4.3
Socialist Labour Jim Berrington 156 0.5 -13.7
Majority 15,942 54.2 +18.5
Turnout 29,409 49.1 +3.3
Labour gain from Speaker Swing +7.4

Elections in the 2000s

A by-election was held in November 2009, caused by the resignation of former Speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin. Labour won fairly comfortably, compared to the surprising SNP win in the neighbouring constituency of Glasgow East in the previous year. The turnout was the lowest in Scottish history.[16]

2009 Glasgow North East by-election
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour Willie Bain 12,231 59.4 New
SNP David Kerr 4,120 20.0 +2.3
Conservative Ruth Davidson 1,075 5.2 New
BNP Charlie Baillie 1,013 4.9 +1.7
Solidarity Tommy Sheridan 794 3.9 New
Liberal Democrats Eileen Baxendale 474 2.3 New
Scottish Green David Doherty 332 1.6 New
Jury Team John Smeaton 258 1.2 New
Scottish Socialist Kevin McVey 152 0.7 -4.2
No Label Mikey Hughes 54 0.3 New
Socialist Labour Louise McDaid 47 0.2 -14.0
Independent Mev Brown 32 0.2 New
The Individuals Labour and Tory (TILT) Colin Campbell 13 0.1 New
Majority 8,111 39.4 +3.7
Turnout 20,595 33.2 -12.6
Labour gain from Speaker Swing
General election 2005: Glasgow North East[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Speaker Michael Martin 1 15,153 53.3 -13.8
SNP John McLaughlin 5,019 17.7 -0.5
Socialist Labour Doris Kelly 4,036 14.2 New
Scottish Socialist Graham Campbell 1,402 4.9 -3.2
Scottish Unionist Daniel Houston 1,266 4.5 +0.3
BNP Scott McLean 920 3.2 New
Independent Joe Chambers 622 2.2 New
Majority 10,134 35.6
Turnout 28,418 45.8 +1.9
Speaker hold Swing -6.6

1 Michael Martin stood as 'the Speaker seeking re-election'. The Speaker is elected by the House of Commons after each General Election.

As is conventional, Michael Martin (a member of the Labour Party when first elected Speaker) stood as Speaker of the House of Commons in the general election of 2005. The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats did not stand against him. Other parties did, including the Scottish National Party (the Constitution of which requires that the party fight every seat in Scotland).

The most notable feature of the result was the relatively large vote for Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party, in an area where it had very little base. This was considered to be a result of voter confusion (and not the first recorded example of its kind). A large number of traditional Labour Party voters may have voted for the Socialist Labour Party in the absence of a named Labour Party candidate on the ballot paper.

See also

Notes and references
  1. "A note on the Speakership". Lords of the Blog. Hansard Society. 21 October 2009.
  2. Fifth Periodical Report Archived 21 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine Boundary Commission for Scotland
  3. Wheeler, Brian (1 December 2014). "The strange truth about how and why we vote" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  4. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "G" (part 1)
  5. "Statement of Persons Nominated and Notice of Poll". Glasgow City Council. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  6. "Glasgow North East parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". BBC News. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  7. Glasgow Young Scot, 20 Trongate (11 May 2017). "General Election 2017 - Glasgow candidates announced".
  8. election result♯ http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=10527 25Aug15
  9. "SNP and Tory candidates revealed". Evening Times.
  10. "Seven Greens bid for city seats". Evening Times.
  11. "List of selected candidates". Liberal Democrats. 4 March 2015. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
  12. http://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/320.pdf
  13. "2010 election result, Glasgow North East". glasgow.gov.uk.
  14. "UKPollingReport Election Guide 2010 » Glasgow North East". ukpollingreport.co.uk.
  15. "Election 2010 – Glasgow North East". BBC News.
  16. Johnson, Simon (13 November 2009). "Labour 'can win fourth general election after Glasgow North East'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  17. election result♯ http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=10527&fPst=1 31Aug15

♯ This reference gives all recent Glasgow City Westminster election results. You select the year and then the constituency to view the result.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Glasgow Springburn		 Constituency represented by the Speaker
2005–2009		 Succeeded by
Buckingham


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