Edinburgh Pentlands (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Edinburgh Pentlands (UK Parliament constituency).

Edinburgh Pentlands
Scottish Parliament burgh constituency
Edinburgh Pentlands shown within the Lothian electoral region and the region shown within Scotland
Created	1999
MSP	Gordon MacDonald
Council area	City of Edinburgh
Party	Scottish National Party

Edinburgh Pentlands is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality (first past the post) method of election. It is one of nine constituencies in the Lothians 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

See also Lothians Scottish Parliament region

The other eight constituencies of the Lothians region are Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Edinburgh North and Leith, Edinburgh South, Edinburgh West, Linlithgow, Livingston and Midlothian.

The region covers the City of Edinburgh council area, the West Lothian council area, part of the Midlothian council area, and part of the East Lothian council area.

Constituency boundaries and council area

The Edinburgh Pentlands 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.

The Holyrood constituency covers a south-western portion of the City of Edinburgh council area. The rest of the city area is covered by five other constituencies, all also in the Lothians electoral region: Edinburgh West, Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh South, Edinburgh North and Leith, and Edinburgh East and Musselburgh.

Edinburgh Pentlands has boundaries with the Edinburgh West, Edinburgh Central, and Edinburgh South constituencies.

The Edinburgh East and Musselburgh constituency also covers the Musselburgh portion of the East Lothian council area. The rest of the East Lothian area is covered by the East Lothian constituency, which is in the South of Scotland electoral region.

Wards

Edinburgh Pentlands included the wards of Balerno, Baberton, Colinton, Craiglockhart, Fairmilehead, Firrhill, Murrayburn, Parkhead and Sighthill, and part of the South Morningside ward, which is split with the South constituency. The wards were created in 1999, at the same time as the constituency, and were replaced for the new single transferable vote system introduced in 2007.

The new wards straddle the constituency boundaries and are called Pentland Hills, Colinton & Fairmilehead, Morningside & Meadows, Craiglockhart & Fountainbridge and Sighthill & Gorgie.

They all elect three councillors except Morningside & Meadows and Sighthill & Gorgie, which elect four.

The party breakdown is:

• Pentland Hills: 1 Con, 1 Lab, 1 SNP:
• Colinton and Fairmilehead: 2 Con, 1 Lab:
• Morningside and Meadows: 1 Con, 1 LD, 1 Green, 1 Lab:
• Craiglockhart and Fountainbridge: 1 Con, 1 LD, 1 Lab:
• Sighthill and Gorgie: 2 Lab, 1 SNP, 1 LD:

In total, there are 6 Labour, 5 Conservatives, 3 Liberal Democrats, 2 SNP and 1 Green.

Constituency profile

The constituency has an urban north and a suburban centre. The remaining area is rural, and runs into the Pentland Hills in the south. The constituency includes Balerno, Colinton, Craiglockhart, Parkhead, Sighthill and a southern area of Morningside.

Members of the Scottish Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1999	Iain Gray	Labour
	2003	David McLetchie	Conservative
	2007
	2011	Gordon MacDonald	Scottish National Party

Election results

2011 election reults

Scottish Parliament election, 2011: Edinburgh Pentlands
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Gordon MacDonald	11,197	37.3%	+11.1%
	Conservative	David McLetchie	9,439	31.4%	-3.7%
	Labour	Ricky Henderson	7,993	26.6%	+0.1%
	Liberal Democrats	Simon Clark	1,420	4.5%	-7.5%
Majority			1,758	5.9
Turnout			30,049	56.9

Liberal Democrats gained under 5% of the poll and thus lost their deposit

2007 election results

Scottish Parliament election, 2007: Edinburgh Pentlands
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	%	±%
	Conservative	Y David McLetchie		12,927	37.60	+0.40	8,940	25.07
	Labour	Sheila Gilmore		8,402	24.44	-6.44	7,539	21.61
	SNP	Ian McKee		8,234	23.95	+7.12	7,879	22.09
	Liberal Democrats	Simon Clark		4,814	14.00	+2.19	3,401	9.54
	Independent - Margo McDonald						2,857	8.01
	Scottish Green						2,018	5.66
	Scottish Senior Citizens						481	1.38
	Scottish Christian						279	0.80
	BNP						261	0.73
	Solidarity						245	0.70
	Socialist Labour						206	0.58
	Scottish Socialist						161	0.45
	Publican Party						130	0.37
	Christian Peoples						102	0.29
	UKIP						97	0.28
	Adam Lyal's Witchery Tour Party						72	0.20
	The Had Enough Party						70	0.20
	Scottish Voice						69	0.20
	Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers						32	0.09
	Scottish Enterprise						23	0.07
	Independent - Alex Scott						13	0.04
	Independent - John Gibb Wilson						4	0.01
	Independent - Duncan Thorp						3	0.01
Informal votes				1,528			1,023
Total Valid votes				34,377			34,882
Turnout				35,905	59.1
	Conservative hold		Majority	4,525	13.16	+6.84

2003 election results

Scottish Parliament election, 2003: Edinburgh Pentlands
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David McLetchie	12,420	37.2	+8.3
	Labour	Iain Gray	10,309	30.9	−5.3
	SNP	Ian McKee	5,620	16.8	−5.3
	Liberal Democrats	Simon Clark	3,943	11.8	−0.9
	Scottish Socialist	Frank O'Donnell	1,090	3.3	+3.3
Majority			2,111	6.3
Turnout			33,382	57.03	−8.94
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	6.8%

1999 election results

Scottish Parliament election, 1999: Edinburgh Pentlands
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Iain Gray	14,343	36.2	N/A
	Conservative	David McLetchie	11,458	28.9	N/A
	SNP	Stewart Gibb	8,770	22.2	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Ian Gibson	5,029	12.7	N/A
Majority			2,885	7.3	N/A
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing

Footnotes

See also

• Politics of Edinburgh