MSP Willie Coffey Founded 2011 Lieutenancy area East Ayrshire | Created from Kilmarnock and Loudoun Council area East Ayrshire Replaced by Kilmarnock and Loudoun | |
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Party Scottish National Party Created Scottish Parliament election, 2011 | ||
Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley 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, it is one of nine constituencies in the South Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Contents
- Electoral region
- Constituency boundaries and council area
- Constituency profile
- Voting patterns
- Member of the Scottish Parliament
- 2003 Parliamentary election
- References
The seat was created for the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, following the redrawing and renaming of the old Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency which had been in the Central Scotland region.
Electoral region
The other eight constituencies of the South Scotland region are Ayr, Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, Clydesdale, Dumfriesshire, East Lothian, Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Galloway and West Dumfries and Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale.
The region covers the Dumfries and Galloway council area, part of the East Ayrshire council area, part of the East Lothian council area, part of the Midlothian council area, the Scottish Borders council area, the South Ayrshire council area and part of the South Lanarkshire council area.
Constituency boundaries and council area
East Ayrshire is represented in the Scottish Parliament by two constituencies: Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley and Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley.
The electoral wards in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley constituency are:
Constituency profile
The Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley constituency is a part-urban part-rural constituency located along the northern half of the East Ayrshire council area. Towards the south-west of the constituency is the town of Kilmarnock and its adjoining towns and villages. Kilmarnock is a deprived industrial town which is mostly made up of social housing, with some suburban housing towards the western end of the town. To the east of the town, along the valley of the River Irvine, is a string of industrial towns and villages such as Galston and Newmilns located within the parish of Loudoun. The region was once dependent upon the manufacture of textiles before the industry's collapse throughout the mid-20th Century. The north of the constituency is mostly made up of farmlands, with the historic town of Stewarton lying directly north of Kilmarnock along the Annick Water.
Voting patterns
At Westminster the Kilmarnock constituency - later renamed to Kilmarnock and Loudoun - was a predominantly Labour-voting constituency which continuously returned Labour MP's to Parliament from 1945 until 2015. The constituency was one of thirteen constituencies in the United Kingdom to elect a pro-coalition National Labour MP to Parliament at the 1931 UK general election, and one of only eight to elect a National Labour MP at the 1935 UK general election. At the Scottish Parliament the constituency has gradually developed into an SNP stronghold, with SNP MSP Willie Coffrey gaining the constituency from Labour's Margaret Jamieson in 2007 and building upon his majority in both 2011 and 2016, taking the constituency with a 32.5% majority over Labour's Dave Meechan in 2016. The equivalent Westminster seat of Kilmarnock and Loudoun was gained by the SNP's Alan Brown from Labour's Cathy Jamieson on a swing of 25.9% at the 2015 UK general election.
Member of the Scottish Parliament
As Kilmarnock and Loudoun
As Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley
2003 Parliamentary election
N.B. Turnout for regional list was 31,681 votes