Created 2005 Member of parliament David Mundell | European Parliament constituency Scotland Party Conservative Party | |
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Created from Dumfries, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale Replaced by Clydesdale, Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale | ||
Dumfriesshire clydesdale and tweeddale uk parliament constituency
Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in the south of Scotland, within the Dumfries and Galloway, South Lanarkshire and Scottish Borders council areas. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the First-past-the-post system of voting.
Contents
The seat has a diverse electoral history, with the Dumfriesshire area being a longtime Conservative seat, the Clydesdale area being formerly safe Labour territory, and Tweeddale had been part of Liberal Democrat voting constituencies since the 1980s. Current Scottish Secretary David Mundell has held the seat since 2005 and since then has been the only Conservative MP representing a Scottish constituency.
A mostly rural constituency, it takes in the towns of Annan, Biggar, Gretna, Langholm, Lockerbie, Moffat and Peebles.
Boundaries
As created by the Fifth Review of the Boundary Commission for Scotland the constituency is one of six covering the Dumfries and Galloway council area, the Scottish Borders council area and the South Lanarkshire council area. The other five constituencies are: Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, Dumfries and Galloway, East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow, Lanark and Hamilton East and Rutherglen and Hamilton West.
The Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale constituency covers parts of all three council areas. The rest of the Dumfries and Galloway council area is covered by the Dumfries and Galloway constituency; the rest of the Scottish Borders council area is covered by the Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk constituency; and the rest of the South Lanarkshire council area is covered by the East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow constituency, the Lanark and Hamilton East constituency, and the Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency.
The Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale constituency is predominantly rural, and the terms of the name refer to the former local government county of Dumfries, the Clydesdale area of the South Lanarkshire council area and the Tweeddale area of the Scottish Borders council area. The Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale constituency excludes, however, most of the town of Dumfries, which is within the Dumfries and Galloway constituency.
Politics
The seat's main predecessor seats: Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, Ettrick & Lauderdale, all had distinct political influences. Dumfriesshire had been a Conservative/National Liberal seat from 1931 to 1997, but was lost to Labour's Russell Brown in 1997. Clydesdale had been a safe Labour seat since the 1980s, and Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale had been a Liberal/Liberal Democrat seat since 1983.
Following the boundary review for the 2005 general election, Labour held a clear majority of 12% over the Conservatives according to calculations of notional results (an estimate of how the seat would have voted if it had existed at the previous election) and the seat was 96th in the Conservative's target list. The Liberal Democrats were in a close third place in the seat. However, former Conservative MSP David Mundell was successful in taking the seat from Labour, with a swing of 8.0%. This left him as the only Conservative MP representing a Scottish constituency at the 2005 general election, after the Conservative MP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Peter Duncan was defeated in the new Dumfries and Galloway constituency, and Tory attempts to gain Angus from the SNP ended in failure.
In 2010, Mundell was returned as the constituency's MP, with an increased majority. In 2015, after the SNP landslide, he narrowly defeated his SNP rival to remain as the only Scottish Conservative MP elected.