Central Ayrshire (UK Parliament constituency)
| Central Ayrshire | |
|---|---|
| County constituency for the House of Commons | |
 Boundary of Central Ayrshire in Scotland for the 2005 general election | |
| Subdivisions of Scotland | North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire |
| Current constituency | |
| Created | 2005 |
| Member of Parliament | Philippa Whitford (SNP) |
| Created from | Cunninghame South, Ayr |
| 1950–1983 | |
| Created from | Ayr Burghs, Bute and Northern Ayrshire, and Kilmarnock |
| Replaced by | Cunninghame South, Cunninghame North and Ayr[1] |
| Overlaps | |
| Scottish Parliament | Ayr, Carrick, Cumnock & Doon Valley, Cunninghame South |
Central Ayrshire is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in the south-west of Scotland within the North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire council areas. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system of voting.
Boundaries
As created in 1950, the constituency merged parts of the Bute and Northern Ayrshire and Kilmarnock constituencies. Following the Representation of the People Act 1948, the Central Ayrshire constituency between 1950-55 consisted of Irvine, Kilwinning, Stewarton, Troon, Kilbirnie and part of the district of Kilmarnock.[2] When abolished in 1983, the constituency was largely replaced by Cunninghame South, with Troon and its surrounding areas forming part of the Ayr constituency.
The constituency was re-established in 2005, centred around the historic burgh of Irvine and stretching north to cover part of Kilwinning and south to cover the coastal resort towns of Prestwick, Troon and their adjacent hinterlands alongside part of Ayr. The constituency covers the 2017 electoral wards of Irvine East, Irvine South, Irvine West and a small section of Kilwinning (between the River Garnock and the B778) from the North Ayrshire Council area and Prestwick, Troon, Kyle and a small section of Ayr North (between Seaforth Road and Lochside Road in Heathfield) from the South Ayrshire Council area.[3] The remainder of the North Ayrshire Council area is represented as part of the North Ayrshire and Arran Parliamentary constituency, with the remainder of South Ayrshire being covered by the Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock Parliamentary constituency alongside parts of East Ayrshire.
Constituency profile
Constituency
A diverse seat, the constituency covers towns such as Irvine and parts of Kilwinning to the north, as well as the more affluent coastal resorts of Troon and Prestwick to the south. The seat also takes in a set of villages in rural South Ayrshire including the former mining communities of Annbank, Mossblown and Tarbolton alongside the villages of Loans, Dundonald and Symington.
Irvine was designated in the 1970s as a Glasgow overspill new town. In recent local council elections, the SNP have performed strongly in the town of Irvine. Irvine is among the most deprived parts of Scotland and made up mostly of social housing, with patches of suburban developments around Perceton, central Irvine and in parts of Girdle Toll.[4] The affluent coastal towns of Prestwick and Troon join the town as part of the constituency as well as outlying rural areas located south and east of Troon and Prestwick: Prestwick, Troon and their hinterlands have sustained a considerable level of support for Conservative candidates locally and as part of the Ayr constituency in the Scottish Parliament. Heathfield in Ayr North also forms part of the constituency: this area is relatively small and has elected Labour councillors locally.
UK Parliament elections
The seat has mostly elected Labour Party MPs since the 1950s, with the former MP Brian Donohoe having represented the seat since its creation in 2005, and was MP for the predecessor seat of Cunninghame South since the 1992 general election. He lost his seat at the 2015 general election during an SNP landslide in Scotland, in which the SNP's Philippa Whitford was elected with a majority of 13,589 votes. At the 2017 UK general election the Conservatives were well ahead in Prestwick and Troon in South Ayrshire, with the SNP finishing first in Irvine in North Ayrshire, allowing for Philippa Whitford to return as the Member of Parliament for the Central Ayrshire constituency with a significantly reduced majority of 1,267 votes (2.8%) ahead of Conservative challenger Caroline Hollins-Martin.[5]
Scottish Parliament elections
The constituency overlaps the Scottish Parliamentary constituencies of Ayr, Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley and Cunninghame South. The Ayr constituency has been represented by Conservative MSP John Scott since a by-election in 2000, marginally ahead of the SNP in second place. Cunninghame South is currently represented by SNP MSP Ruth Maguire, who sustained a significant majority of 22.1% of the vote at the 2016 Scottish Parliament election ahead of Labour's Joe Cullinane in second place.
Council elections
At the most recent local council election in 2017 the composition of Councillors elected in the equivalent area of the Central Ayrshire constituency was as follows:
| Conservative | Labour | Scottish National Party |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | 7 | 6 |
The total number of votes cast by political party in the equivalent area of Central Ayrshire at the local election was as follows:
- Scottish Conservatives - 11,657 (38.3%)
- Scottish National Party - 10,391 (34.2%)
- Scottish Labour - 7,151 (23.5%)
- Independents - 679 (2.2%)
- Scottish Greens - 536 (1.8%)
- Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition - 42 (0.1%)
Members of Parliament
| Election | Member[6] | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | 1950 | Archie Manuel | Labour |
| style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | 1955 | Douglas Spencer-Nairn | Unionist |
| rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | 1959 | Archie Manuel | Labour |
| 1970 | David Lambie | ||
| 1983 | constituency abolished: see Ayr and Cunninghame South | ||
| 2005 | constituency created, see Ayr, Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley and Cunninghame South | ||
| style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | 2005 | Brian Donohoe | Labour |
| style="background-color: Template:Scottish National Party/meta/color" | | 2015 | Philippa Whitford | Scottish National Party |
Elections
Elections in the 2010s
2017 general election
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SNP | Philippa Whitford | 16,771 | 37.2 | −16.0 | |
| Conservative | Caroline Hollins-Martin | 15,504 | 34.4 | +17.0 | |
| Labour | Nairn McDonald | 11,762 | 26.1 | −0.3 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Tom Inglis | 1,050 | 2.3 | +0.5 | |
| Majority | 1,267 | 2.8 | −24.0 | ||
| Turnout | 45,087 | 65.3 | −7.2 | ||
| SNP hold | Swing | -16.5 | |||
2015 general election
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SNP | Philippa Whitford | 26,999 | 53.2 | +34.1 | |
| Labour | Brian Donohoe | 13,410 | 26.4 | −21.3 | |
| Conservative | Marc Hope[9] | 8,803 | 17.3 | −3.0 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Gordon Bain[10] | 917 | 1.8 | −10.1 | |
| Scottish Green | Veronika Tudhope[11] | 645 | 1.3 | N/A | |
| Majority | 13,589 | 26.8 | n/a | ||
| Turnout | 50,774 | 72.5 | +8.3 | ||
| SNP gain from Labour | Swing | +27.7 | |||
2010 general election
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Brian Donohoe | 20,950 | 47.7 | +1.3 | |
| Conservative | Maurice Golden | 8,943 | 20.4 | −1.8 | |
| SNP | John Mullen | 8,364 | 19.0 | +7.5 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Andrew Chamberlain | 5,236 | 11.9 | −4.1 | |
| Socialist Labour | James McDaid | 422 | 1.0 | −0.1 | |
| Majority | 12,007 | 27.3 | |||
| Turnout | 43,915 | 64.2 | +1.1 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | +1.5 | |||
Elections in the 2000s
2005 general election
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Brian Donohoe | 19,905 | 46.4 | −2.8 | |
| Conservative | Garry Clark | 9,482 | 22.1 | −4.1 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Iain Kennedy | 6,881 | 16.1 | +9.7 | |
| SNP | Jahangir Hanif | 4,969 | 11.6% | −3.0 | |
| Scottish Socialist | Denise Morton | 820 | 1.9 | −1.0 | |
| Socialist Labour | Robert Cochrane | 468 | 1.1 | +0.5 | |
| UKIP | Jim Groves | 346 | 0.8 | +0.7 | |
| Majority | 10,423 | 24.3 | |||
| Turnout | 42,871 | 62.5 | +1.0 | ||
| Labour win (new seat) | |||||
Elections in the 1970s
1979 general election
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | David Lambie | 27,438 | 51.13 | ||
| Conservative | R Wilkinson | 15,734 | 29.32 | ||
| SNP | Ian Macdonald | 5,596 | 10.43 | ||
| Liberal | I Clarkson | 4,896 | 9.12 | ||
| Majority | 11,704 | 21.82 | |||
| Turnout | 79.75 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
October 1974 general election
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | David Lambie | 21,188 | 45.09 | ||
| Conservative | M. Carse | 11,633 | 24.75 | ||
| SNP | L. Anderson | 11,533 | 24.54 | ||
| Liberal | J. Watts | 2,640 | 5.62 | ||
| Majority | 9,555 | 20.33 | |||
| Turnout | 79.28 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
February 1974 general election
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | David Lambie | 23,639 | 48.99 | ||
| Conservative | R Gavin | 17,362 | 35.98 | ||
| SNP | L Anderson | 7,255 | 15.03 | ||
| Majority | 6,277 | 13.01 | |||
| Turnout | 82.08 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
1970 general election
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | David Lambie | 24,536 | 52.40 | ||
| Conservative | Ian Lang | 19,569 | 41.79 | ||
| SNP | A MacDonald | 2,383 | 5.09 | ||
| Independent | T Menzies | 339 | 0.72 | ||
| Majority | 4,967 | 10.61 | |||
| Turnout | 80.56 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
Elections in the 1960s
1966 general election
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Archibald Manuel | 24,035 | 57.68 | ||
| Conservative | John Corrie | 17,637 | 42.32 | ||
| Majority | 6,398 | 15.35 | |||
| Turnout | 82.12 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
1964 general election
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Archibald Manuel | 23,999 | 56.44 | ||
| Conservative | GR Rickman | 18,523 | 43.56 | ||
| Majority | 5,476 | 12.88 | |||
| Turnout | 84.19 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
Elections in the 1950s
1959 general election
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Archibald Manuel | 21,901 | 51.99 | ||
| Unionist | Douglas Spencer-Nairn | 20,225 | 48.01 | ||
| Majority | 1,676 | 3.98 | |||
| Turnout | 86.69 | ||||
| Labour gain from Unionist | Swing | ||||
1955 general election
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unionist | Douglas Spencer-Nairn | 19,713 | 50.21 | ||
| Labour | Archibald Manuel | 19,546 | 49.79 | ||
| Majority | 167 | 0.43 | |||
| Turnout | 83.33 | ||||
| Unionist gain from Labour | Swing | ||||
1951 general election
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Archibald Manuel | 21,003 | 52.10 | ||
| Unionist | William Rankine Milligan | 19,310 | 47.90 | ||
| Majority | 1,693 | 4.20 | |||
| Turnout | 86.26 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
1950 general election
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Archibald Manuel | 18,792 | 48.96 | ||
| Unionist | William Rankine Milligan | 16,830 | 43.85 | ||
| Liberal | Charles Jack Coleman | 2,760 | 7.19 | ||
| Majority | 1,962 | 5.11 | |||
| Turnout | 85.56 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
References
- ^ "'Ayrshire Central', Feb 1974 - May 1983". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Archived from the original on 19 March 2016. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-05-15. Retrieved 2011-02-24.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ [1][permanent dead link]
- ^ http://simd.scot/2016/ 'Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2016'
- ^ Reynolds, Michael (14 June 2017). "Philippa survives shock Tory push". Ayrshire Post. Ayr.
- ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "A" (part 3)
- ^ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ^ http://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/documents/central%20ayrshire%20results.pdf
- ^ "Marc Hope PPC for Central Ayrshire". South Ayrshire Conservatives. Archived from the original on 9 April 2015.
- ^ "List of selected candidates". Liberal Democrats. 4 March 2015. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
- ^ http://www.irvinetimes.com/news/kilwinning/articles/2015/01/15/521405-green-party-name-central-ayrshire-candidate/
- ^ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ^ "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- ^ Whitaker's Almanack 1977
- ^ Whitaker's Almanack 1963