MSP Ruth Maguire Council area North Ayrshire Party Scottish National Party | Founded 1999 Lieutenancy area North Ayrshire | |
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Created Scottish Parliament election, 1999 | ||
Cunninghame South is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. Also, however, it is one of ten constituencies in the West Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to ten constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Contents
Electoral region
The other nine constituencies of the West Scotland region are Clydebank and Milngavie, Cunninghame North, Dumbarton, Eastwood, Greenock and Inverclyde, Paisley, Renfrewshire North and West, Renfrewshire South and Strathkelvin and Bearsden.
The region covers part of the Argyll and Bute council area, the East Dunbartonshire council area, the East Renfrewshire council area, the Inverclyde council area, North Ayrshire council area, the Renfrewshire council area and the West Dunbartonshire council area.
Constituency boundaries and council area
The Cunninghame South 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.
The rest of the North Ayrshire area is covered by the Cunninghame North constituency.
From the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, the electoral wards used to form this constituency are:
Constituency profile
The Cunninghame South constituency occupies the southern portion of the North Ayrshire Council area, covering the industrial working class towns of Kilwinning, Stevenston and the Glasgow overspill town of Irvine.
Voting patterns
The area has traditionally been represented by the Labour party, with Labour continuously representing the Central Ayrshire and Cunninghame South constituencies at the British Parliament from 1959 until 2015 - when the constituency of Central Ayrshire was won by the Scottish National Party on a 27.7% swing from Labour to SNP. In the Scottish Parliament Cunninghame South was comfortably won by the Labour Party from the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 until 2011, when the seat was gained by the SNP on a 9.9% swing.