Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (UK Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Scottish Parliament constituency).
Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross
County constituency
for the House of Commons

Boundary of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross in Scotland.
County Highland
Current constituency
Created 1997 (1997)
Member of Parliament John Thurso (Liberal Democrat)
Created from Caithness & Sutherland and Ross, Cromarty & Skye
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency Scotland

Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster). It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election.

Contents

Boundaries

The constituency was created in 1997 by merging Caithness and Sutherland with an area from Ross, Cromarty and Skye. The rest of Ross, Cromarty and Skye was merged into another new constituency, Ross, Skye and Inverness West.

In 1999 a Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) constituency was created with the name and boundaries of the Westminster constituency.

In 2005 the Westminster constituency was enlarged slightly, to include a small area from Ross, Skye and Inverness West. The rest of the latter was divided between two new constituencies, Ross, Skye and Lochaber and Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey.

For representation at Holyrood, therefore, the area of the Westminster constituency is now divided between two constituencies, Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (the Holyrood constituency) and Ross, Skye and Inverness West (the Holyrood constituency).

Local government area

See also Politics of the Highland council area

Since it was created in 1997 the constituency has been one of three covering the Highland council area. Since 2005 the other two have been Ross, Skye and Lochaber and Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey. From 1997 to 2005 the other constituencies of the council area were Ross, Skye and Inverness West and Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber. Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross is the most northerly of the constituencies, and it now has the Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency on its southern boundary.

As enlarged in 2005, the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross constituency covered 23 out of the 80 wards of the council area: all ten wards of the Caithness area committee, all six wards of the Sutherland area committee and seven (Alness and Ardross, Invergordon, Ferindonald, Rosskeen and Saltburn, Seaboard, Tain East and Tain West) out of the 18 wards of the Ross and Cromarty area committee.

Further information: Highland Council wards 1999 to 2007

Ward boundaries were redrawn again, this year, 2007, and the management areas were abolished in favour of three new corporate management areas. The new areas consist of groups of the new wards, and boundaries are similar to those of the Westminster constituencies, as defined in 2005. Two areas, the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross area and the Ross, Skye and Lochaber area, have the names of Westminster constituencies. The name of the third area, the Inverness, Nairn, and Badenoch and Strathspey area, is very similar to that of the third constituency.

Members of Parliament

Election Member [1] Party
1997 Robert Maclennan Liberal Democrat
2001 John Thurso Liberal Democrat

Election results

2010

General Election 2010: Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrat John Thurso 11,907 41.4 -9.1
Labour John Mackay 7,081 24.6 +3.7
SNP Jean Urquhart 5,516 19.2 +5.8
Conservative Alastair Graham 3,744 13.0 +2.8
Independent Gordon Campbell 520 1.8 -1.3
Majority 4,826 16.8
Turnout 28,768 60.9 +1.5
Liberal Democrat hold Swing -6.4

2005

Note: The constituency was slightly enlarged in 2005. Therefore +/- percentages are somewhat notional.
General Election 2005: Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrat John Thurso 13,957 50.5 +11.9
Labour Alan Jamieson 5,789 20.9 −3.4
SNP Karen Shirron 3,686 13.3 −7.0
Conservative Angus Ross 2,835 10.2 −3.3
Independent Gordon Campbell 848 3.1 +2.3
Scottish Socialist Luke Ivory 548 2.0 −0.2
Majority 8,168 29.5
Turnout 27,663 59.1 −2.0
Liberal Democrat hold Swing +7.6

2001

General Election 2001: Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrat John Thurso 9,041 36.4 +0.8
Labour Michael Meighan 6,297 25.3 −2.5
SNP John MacAdam 5,273 21.2 −1.8
Conservative Robert Rowantree 3,513 14.1 +3.3
Scottish Socialist Karn Mabon 544 2.2 (+2.2)
Independent Gordon Campbell 199 0.8 (+0.8)
Majority 2,744 11.1
Turnout 24,867 60.2 −9.8
Liberal Democrat hold Swing

1997

General Election 1997: Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrat Robert Maclennan 10,381 35.6 N/A
Labour James Hendry 8,122 27.8 N/A
SNP Euan Harper 6,710 23.0 N/A
Conservative Tom Miers 3,148 10.8 N/A
Referendum Party C. Ryder 369 1.3 N/A
Scottish Green J. Martin 230 0.8 N/A
UKIP M. Carr 212 0.7 N/A
Majority 2,259 N/A
Turnout 70.2 N/A

Notes and references

  1. ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 1)
  2. ^ Nominations for UK Parliamentary Election for the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross Constituency, The Highland Council
Constituencies in Scotland by Holding Party (59)
Labour (41)
Liberal Democrat (11)
Scottish National Party (6)
Conservative (1)