Glasgow Pollok (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Glasgow Pollok (UK Parliament constituency).

Glasgow Pollok
Scottish Parliament burgh constituency
Glasgow Pollok shown within the Glasgow electoral region and the region shown within Scotland
Created	1999
MSP	Johann Lamont
Council area	Glasgow City
Party	Labour

Glasgow Pollok 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. Also, however, it is one of nine constituencies in the Glasgow electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

Electoral region

See also Glasgow Scottish Parliament region

The other nine constituencies of the Glasgow region are Glasgow Anniesland, Glasgow Baillieston, Glasgow Cathcart, Glasgow Govan, Glasgow Kelvin, Glasgow Maryhill, Glasgow Rutherglen, Glasgow Shettleston and Glasgow Springburn.

The region covers the Glasgow City council area and a north-western portion of the South Lanarkshire council area.

Constituency boundaries

The Glasgow Pollok 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 Scottish Parliament constituency is entirely within the Glasgow City council area, on its south-western boundary. It is south of the Govan constituency and west of the Cathcart constituency. Cathcart and Govan are also entirely within the city area.

Constituency profile

Half of Pollok Country Park and the world-renowned Burrell Collection are found here, but there is a lack of open green space as council estates occupy most of this region. Social deprivation, high levels of unemployment and poor housing are serious problems in areas such as Nitshill, Priesthill, Arden and Corkerhill.

Pollok has been regarded as among the safest Labour seats in Scotland, but became the mainspring of the Scottish Socialist Party during the anti-poll tax campaign. However, Johann Lamont, well-known for her 'old Labour' credentials, won the seat for Labour in 1999 with a respectable 17.8% majority over the Scottish National Party's Kenny Gibson.

Member of the Scottish Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1999	Johann Lamont	Labour
	2003
	2007
	2011

Election results

Scottish Parliament election, 2011: Glasgow Pollok
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Johann Lamont	10,875	47.5	-5.2
	SNP	Christopher Stephens	10,252	44.7	+11.9
	Conservative	Andrew Morrison	1,298	5.7	-1.3
	Liberal Democrats	Isabel Nelson	490	2.1	-4.9
Majority			623	2.7
Turnout			22,915	39
	Labour hold		Swing	-8.5

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

Scottish Parliament election, 2007: Glasgow Pollok
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	%	±%
	Labour	Y Johann Lamont		10,456	53.86	+10.42	8,915	43.13
	SNP	Chris Stephens		6,063	31.23	+12.11	5,352	25.89
	Conservative	Gerald Michaluk		1,460	7.52	+2.82	1,020	4.93
	Liberal Democrats	Christine Gilmore		1,436	7.40	+2.93	792	3.83
	Solidarity						1,502	7.27
	Scottish Green						538	2.50
	Scottish Senior Citizens						486	2.26
	BNP						419	1.95
	Scottish Christian						333	1.55
	Scottish Socialist						318	1.48
	Socialist Labour						284	1.32
	Christian Peoples						239	1.11
	Scottish Unionist						150	0.70
	Publican Party						99	0.46
	UKIP						44	0.20
	Scottish Voice						41	0.19
	Independent - Asif Nasir						31	0.14
	Independent Green Voice						31	0.14
	Independent - Muhammad Shoaib						29	0.13
	Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers						25	0.12
	Communist						15	0.07
	Independent - James Cruikshank						4	0.02
	Nine Percent Growth Party						3	0.01
Informal votes				2,106			851
Total Valid votes				19,415			20,670
Turnout				21,521
	Labour hold		Majority	4,393	22.63	+7.11

Scottish Parliament election, 2003: Glasgow Pollok
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Johann Lamont	9,357	43.4%	-0.3%
	Scottish Socialist	Tommy Sheridan	6,016	27.9%	+6.4%
	SNP	Kenny Gibson	4,118	19.1%	-6.8%
	Conservative	Ashraf Anjum	1,012	4.7%	-0.6%
	Liberal Democrats	Isabel Nelson	962	4.5%	+0.9%
	PE	Robert Ray	73	0.3%	+0.3%
Majority			3,341	15.5%	-2.30%
Turnout			21,538	45.7%
	Labour hold		Swing	-0.3%

Scottish Parliament election, 1999: Glasgow Pollok
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Johann Lamont	11,405	43.73%	N/A
	SNP	Kenny Gibson	6,763	25.93%	N/A
	Scottish Socialist	Tommy Sheridan	5,611	21.51%	N/A
	Conservative	Rory O'Brien	1,370	5.25%	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	James King	931	3.57%	N/A
Majority			4,642	17.80%	N/A
Turnout			26,080

See also

• Politics of Glasgow