Paisley and Renfrewshire South (UK Parliament constituency)

Paisley and Renfrewshire South County constituency
Paisley and Renfrewshire South shown within Scotland
Created:	2005
MP:	Douglas Alexander
Party:	Labour
Type:	House of Commons
Council areas:	Renfrewshire
EP constituency:	Scotland

Paisley and Renfrewshire South is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in Renfrewshire, Scotland to the south-west of Glasgow. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the First-past-the-post system of voting.

The seat was formed in 2005, and is a safe seat for the Labour Party, who currently have a majority of over 16,000. It's current MP is Douglas Alexander, who has been the constituency's MP since 2005 (and for the predecessor seat of Paisley South since 1997). Alexander is the current Shadow Foreign Secretary, and has previously held cabinet posts such as Transport Secretary and Scottish Secretary (2006-07; joint), and International Development Secretary (2007-10).

Within the constituency, is the southern and town centre areas of Paisley and the other towns of Glenburn, Johnstone and Kilbarchan.

Boundaries

This new seat takes the majority of Paisley South with minor additions from neighbouring constituencies. Population areas in this seat include Glenburn, Saucel and Hunterhill, Johnstone, and Kilbarchan.

Members of Parliament

Douglas Alexander has represented the constituency since its creation in 2005; he had previously represented the former constituency of Paisley South since a 1997 by-election.

Election		Member	Party
	2005	Douglas Alexander	Labour

Election results

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2010: Paisley and Renfrewshire South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Alexander	23,842	59.6	+7.0
	SNP	Andrew Doig	7,228	18.1	+0.5
	Conservative	Gordon McCaskill	3,979	9.9	+1.5
	Liberal Democrats	Ashay Ghai	3,812	9.5	–8.1
	Independent	William Hendry	249	0.6
	Scottish Socialist	Jimmy Kerr	375	0.9	–1.1
	Independent	Paul Mack	513	1.3
Majority			16,614	41.54
Turnout			39,998	65.36	+2.4
	Labour hold		Swing	+3.27

General Election 2005: Paisley and Renfrewshire South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Alexander	19,904	52.6	-4.4
	Liberal Democrats	Eileen McCartin	6,672	17.6	+8.0
	SNP	Andrew Doig	6,653	17.6	-3.3
	Conservative	Thomas Begg	3,188	8.4	0.0
	Scottish Socialist	Iain Hogg	789	2.1	-0.7
	Pride in Paisley Party	Gordon Matthew	381	1.0	+1.0
	Independent (politician)	Robert Rodgers	166	0.4	+0.4
	Socialist Labour	Howard Broadbent	107	0.3	+0.3
Majority			13,232	34.9
Turnout			37,860	62.9	+6.0
	Labour hold		Swing	-6.2

References

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