Motherwell and Wishaw (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Motherwell and Wishaw
burgh constituency
for the Scottish Parliament

Motherwell and Wishaw shown within the Central Scotland electoral region and the region shown within Scotland
Current constituency
Created 1999
Party Labour
MSP John Pentland
Council area North Lanarkshire

Motherwell and Wishaw is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). 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 Central Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

Electoral region

The other eight constituencies of the Central Scotland region are Airdrie and Shotts, Coatbridge and Chryston, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, East Kilbride, Falkirk East, Falkirk West, Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse and Uddingston and Bellshill.

The region covers all of the Falkirk council area, all of the North Lanarkshire council area and part of the South Lanarkshire council area.

Constituency boundaries and council area

The 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.[1]

The Holyrood constituency is one of five covering the North Lanarkshire council area, the others being Airdrie and Shotts, Coatbridge and Chryston, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth and Uddingston and Bellshill. All five are within the Central Scotland electoral region.

The electoral wards used in the creation of Motherwell and Wishaw are:

Member of the Scottish Parliament

The seat has always elected Labour MSPs, it was a safe Labour seat from 1999 until 2011. The MSP from 1999 was the former First Minister, Lord Jack McConnell. The current MSP is John Pentland who won the seat on McConnell's retirement in 2011, but the national SNP landslide of that year turned it for the first time from safe Labour into a Labour-SNP marginal with just two percentage points separating Pentland and his nearest opponent, the SNP's Clare Adamson.

Election Member Party
1999 Jack McConnell Labour
2003
2007
2011 John Pentland Labour

Election results

Scottish Parliament Election 2011: Motherwell and Wishaw
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour John Pentland 10,713 43.8 -4.3
SNP Clare Adamson 10,126 41.4 +16.0
Conservative Robert Burgess 1,753 7.2 -0.4
Scottish Senior Citizens John Swinburne 945 3.9 -1.9
Scottish Christian Tom Selfridge 547 2.2 -2.8
Liberal Democrats Beverley Hope 367 1.5 -4.5
Majority 587 2.4% -20.3%
Rejected ballots TBA {{{change}}}
Turnout 24,451 45% -3.5
Labour hold Swing N/A

Scottish Senior Citizens, Scottish Christians and Liberal Democrats all gained under 5% of the poll and thus lost their deposit

Scottish Parliament election, 2007 Notional Result: Motherwell and Wishaw
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour 12,675 48.4
SNP 6,701 25.6
Conservative 2,165 8.3
Liberal Democrats 1,563 6.0
Others 3,102 11.8
Majority 5,974 22.8
Labour hold Swing
Scottish Parliament Election 2007: Motherwell and Wishaw
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Jack McConnell 12,574 48.1 -6.0
SNP Marion Fellows 6,636 25.4 +7.8
Conservative Diane Huddleston 1,990 7.6 -2.4
Scottish Senior Citizens John Swinburne 1,702 6.5 +0.2
Liberal Democrats Stuart Douglas 1,570 6.0 +1.8
Scottish Christian Thomas Selfridge 1,491 5.7 +5.7
ATP Richard Leat 187 0.7 0.7
Majority 5928 22.7 -3.5
Rejected ballots 970 {{{change}}}
Turnout 26,150 48.5 -0.5
Labour hold Swing N/A
Scottish Parliament Election 2003: Motherwell and Wishaw
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Jack McConnell 13,739 54.12 +8.21
SNP Lloyd Quinan 4,480 17.65 -11.62
Conservative Mark Nolan 2,542 10.01 -2.17
Scottish Socialist John Milligan 1,961 7.72 N/A
Scottish Senior Citizens John Swinburne 1,597 6.29 +6.29
Liberal Democrats Keith Legg 1,069 4.21 -2.04
Majority 9,259 36.47 +19.84
Turnout 25,388 49.03 -8.63
Labour hold Swing N/A
Scottish Parliament Election 1999: Motherwell and Wishaw
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Jack McConnell 13,925 45.9 N/A
SNP Jim McGuigan 8,879 29.3 N/A
Conservative William Gibson 3,694 12.2 N/A
Socialist Labour John Milligan 1,941 6.4 N/A
Liberal Democrats Roger Spillane 1,895 6.2 N/A
Majority 5,046 16.6 N/A
Turnout 30,334 57.1 N/A
Labour win (new seat)

Footnotes

Preceded by
Fife Central
Constituency represented by the First Minister
2001–2007
Succeeded by
Gordon