Paisley South (UK Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Paisley South (Scottish Parliament constituency).

Paisley South
Former Burgh constituency
for the House of Commons
Subdivisions of Scotland	Renfrewshire
Major settlements	Paisley
1983 (1983)–2005 (2005)
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Paisley & Renfrewshire South Paisley & Renfrewshire North
Created from	Paisley

Paisley South was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.

History

The constituency was created when the former Paisley constituency was divided for the 1983 general election. It was abolished for the 2005 general election, when Paisley was represented by the new constituencies of Paisley & Renfrewshire South and Paisley & Renfrewshire North.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1983	Norman Buchan	Labour
	1990 by-election	Gordon McMaster	Labour
	1997 by-election	Douglas Alexander	Labour
2005		constituency abolished: see Paisley & Renfrewshire South and Paisley & Renfrewshire North

Election results

General Election 2001: Paisley South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Alexander	17,830	58.4	+0.9
	SNP	Brian Lawson	5,920	19.4	-4.0
	Liberal Democrat	Brian O’Malley	3,178	10.4	+1.0
	Conservative	Andrew Cossar	2,301	7.5	-1.1
	Scottish Socialist	Frances Curran	835	2.7	N/A
	ProLife Alliance	Patricia Graham	346	1.1	N/A
	Independent	Terence O'Donnell	126	0.4	N/A
Majority			11,910	39.0
Turnout			30,536	57.2	-11.9
	Labour hold		Swing

Paisley South by-election, 1997
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Alexander	10,346	44.1	-13.4
	SNP	Ian Blackford	7,615	32.5	+9.1
	Liberal Democrat	Eileen McCartin	2,582	11.0	+1.6
	Conservative	Sheila Laidlaw	1,643	7.0	-1.7
	ProLife Alliance	John Deighan	578	2.5	N/A
	Scottish Socialist	Frances Curran	306	1.3	+0.9
	Independent	C. McLauchlan	155	0.7	N/A
	Socialist Labour	C. Herriot	153	0.7	N/A
	Natural Law	Kenneth Blair	57	0.2	N/A
Majority			2,731
Turnout				42.9
	Labour hold		Swing	-11.3

General Election 1997: Paisley South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gordon McMaster	21,482	57.5
	SNP	William Martin	8,732	23.4
	Liberal Democrat	Eileen McCartin	3,500	9.4
	Conservative	Robin Reid	3,237	8.6
	Referendum Party	James Lardner	254	0.7
	Scottish Socialist	Sean Clerkin	146	0.4
Majority
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing

Paisley South by-election, 1990
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gordon McMaster	12,485	46.1	-10.0
	SNP	Iain Lawson	7,455	27.5	+13.5
	Conservative	J Workman	3,627	13.4	-1.3
	Liberal Democrat	Alan Reid	2,660	9.8	5.3
	Green	L Collie	835	3.1
Majority			5,030	18.6
Turnout			27,062	55.0	-20.3
	Labour hold		Swing	-11.8

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "P" (part 1)