Cunninghame North (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Cunninghame North (UK Parliament constituency).

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

Cunninghame North is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament. It elects one MSP by the first past the post method of election once every four years. Currently, the constituency comprises of the towns of Saltcoats, Ardrossan, Dalry, West Kilbride, Largs, Kilbirnie, Beith, as well as the Isle of Arran and the isle of Great Cumbrae, all within the North Ayrshire council area in south-west Scotland. Historically the seat was safe Conservative territory, before going to Labour in 1987 and falling to the SNP in 2007.

It is also one of nine constituencies in the West of 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.

From the Scottish Parliament election, 2011 this seat will be affected by minor boundary changes. It will remain named "Cunninghame North"

Electoral region

See also West of Scotland Scottish Parliament region

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

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

Constituency boundaries

The Cunninghame North 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, the Westminster (House of Commons) constituency was abolished in favour of new constituencies.

From the Scottish Parliament election, 2011, 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.

Council area

The Holyrood constituency covers a north-western portion of the North Ayrshire council area, and includes the Isle of Arran. The rest of the North Ayrshire area is covered by the Cunninghame South constituency, which is within the South of Scotland electoral region.

Members of the Scottish Parliament

Kenneth Gibson of the Scottish National Party presently holds this seat. With a majority of just 48 over his nearest rival 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 6,117.

Election		Member	Party
	1999	Allan Wilson	Labour
	2003
	2007	Kenneth Gibson	Scottish National Party
	2011

Election results

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% Lab to SNP

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 Y 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
	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. 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 but no election petition was lodged.