Galloway and West Dumfries (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Galloway and West Dumfries
county constituency for the Scottish Parliament

Galloway and West Dumfries shown within the South Scotland electoral region and the region shown within Scotland
Current constituency
Created	2011
Party	Conservative
MSP	Finlay Carson
Council area	Dumfries and Galloway
Created from	Dumfries, Galloway and Upper Nithsdale

Galloway and West Dumfries 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 South 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.

Created in 2011, it comprises areas that were previously part of the old Dumfries and Galloway and Upper Nithsdale constituencies, which were abolished for the 2011 Scottish Parliament election.

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, Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley 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

Wards of the Galloway and West Dumfries Scottish Parliament constituency as of 2011.

Dumfries and Galloway is represented in the Scottish Parliament by two constituencies: Dumfriesshire and Galloway and West Dumfries.

Galloway and West Dumfries is formed from the following electoral wards:

Stranraer and North Rhins, Wigtown West, Mid Galloway, Dee, Castle Douglas and Glenkens, Abbey, North West Dumfries

Constituency profile and voting patterns

Constituency profile

The Galloway and West Dumfries constituency covers a large, diverse stretch of land between the Rhins of Galloway in the extreme south-west of Scotland and the River Nith and Cluden Water in eastern Dumfries and Galloway. It covers a set of rugged pastoral plains and forests across the region of Galloway, taking in rural towns such as Castle Douglas, Newton Stewart, Kirkcudbright and St John's Town of Dalry. To the west of the constituency is the portly town of Stranraer, situated at the base of Loch Ryan, whilst in the east the constituency takes in patches of Dumfries, administrative centre of the Dumfries and Galloway Council area.

Voting patterns

Galloway and West Dumfries has a dynamic mix of political traditions. It covers most of the former Galloway and Upper Nithsdale constituency, a seat which has a long-standing tradition of being marginally contested between the Conservatives and the Scottish National Party, in addition to patches of the former safe Labour constituency of Dumfries. This is dynamic is clearly represented within local council politics with Wigtownshire typically voting SNP, Kirkcudbrightshire voting Conservative and Dumfries voting Labour.

At Westminster the Galloway and Upper Nithsdale constituency was represented by Conservative Ian Lang from its creation at the 1983 UK general election until 1997. It became the only Conservative constituency in the UK Parliament in Scotland in 2001. The Conservatives have represented the area in the Scottish Parliament since 2003.

Member of the Scottish Parliament

As Galloway and Upper Nithsdale

	Member	Party
1999	Alasdair Morgan	Scottish National Party
2003	Alex Fergusson	Scottish Conservative Party
2007	Alex Fergusson	Presiding Officer (elected as a Conservative)

As Galloway and West Dumfries

Election		Member	Party
	2011	Alex Fergusson	Scottish Conservative Party
	2016	Finlay Carson	Scottish Conservative Party

Election results

Finlay Carson.

Scottish Parliament election, 2016: Galloway and West Dumfries
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Finlay Carson	14,527	43.4	+6.5
	SNP	Aileen McLeod	13,013	38.9	+4.9
	Labour	Fiona O'Donnell	4,876	14.6	-11.9
	Liberal Democrats	Andrew Metcalf	947	2.8	+0.3
Majority			1,514	4.5	+1.6
Turnout			33,458	59.4	+6.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	+0.8

Alex Fergusson.

2011 Scottish Parliament election: Galloway and West Dumfries
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alex Fergusson	11,071	36.9	-2.2
	SNP	Aileen McLeod	10,209	34.0	+2.6
	Labour	Willie Scobie	7,954	26.5	+2.6
	Liberal Democrats	Joe Rosiejak	763	2.5	-2.3
Majority			862	2.9
Turnout			29,997	52.6
	Conservative hold		Swing	-2.4%

Scottish Parliament election, 2007 Notional Result: Galloway and West Dumfries
Party		Votes	%
	Conservative	12,756	39.1
	SNP	10,252	31.4
	Labour	7,797	23.9
	Liberal Democrats	1,569	4.8
	Others	261	0.8
Majority		2,504	7.7
	Conservative hold	Swing

2007 Scottish Parliament election: Galloway and Upper Nithsdale^[1]
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Y Alex Fergusson		13,387	44.16	+5.64	10,550	34.62
	SNP	Alasdair Morgan		10,054	33.16	-5.02	9,163	30.07
	Labour	Stephen Hodgson		4,935	16.28	+1.66	6,078	19.95
	Liberal Democrats	Alastair Cooper		1,631	5.38	-0.90	1,672	5.49
	Independent	Sandy Richardson		311	1.03	+1.03
	Scottish Green						1,106	3.63
	Scottish Senior Citizens						513	1.68
	BNP						261	0.86
	Scottish Christian						233	0.76
	UKIP						233	0.76
	Solidarity						192	0.63
	Socialist Labour						172	0.56
	Independent - Paddy Scott Hogg						97	0.32
	Scottish Socialist						88	0.29
	Christian Peoples						69	0.23
	Scottish Voice						45	0.15
Informal votes				977			823
Total Valid votes				30,318			30,472
Turnout				31,295
	Conservative hold		Majority	3,333	10.99	+10.66

2003 Scottish Parliament election: Galloway and Upper Nithsdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alex Fergusson	11,332	38.2	+8.0
	SNP	Alasdair Morgan	11,233	37.9	−1.4
	Labour	Norma Harte	4,299	14.5	−5.9
	Liberal Democrats	Neil Wallace	1,847	6.2	−3.9
	Scottish Socialist	Joy Cherkaoui	709	2.4	+2.3
	New Party	Graham Brockhouse	215	0.7	n/a
Majority			99	0.3
Turnout			29,635	51.8
	Conservative gain from SNP		Swing	4.6

1999 Scottish Parliament election: Galloway and Upper Nithsdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Alasdair Morgan	13,873	39.3	n/a
	Conservative	Alex Fergusson	10,672	30.2	n/a
	Labour	Jim Stevens	7,209	20.4	n/a
	Liberal Democrats	Joan Mitchell	3,562	10.1	n/a
Majority			3,201	9.1	n/a
Turnout			35,316	65.9
	SNP win (new seat)

References

↑ Sub-constituency election results for the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections - data- Scotland Office; 30 April 2008 (retrieved 5 April 2011)

« 1999–2011 « Electoral regions and constituencies of the Scottish Parliament 2011–

Central Scotland	Airdrie and Shotts Coatbridge and Chryston Cumbernauld and Kilsyth East Kilbride Falkirk East Falkirk West Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse Motherwell and Wishaw Uddingston and Bellshill

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South Scotland	Ayr Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley Clydesdale Dumfriesshire East Lothian Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire Galloway and West Dumfries Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley Midlothian South, Tweeddale, and Lauderdale

West Scotland	Clydebank and Milngavie Cunninghame North Cunninghame South Dumbarton Eastwood Greenock and Inverclyde Paisley Renfrewshire North and West Renfrewshire South Strathkelvin and Bearsden

Electoral regions and Constituencies of the Scottish Parliament 1999–2011 » 2011– »

Central Scotland	Airdrie and Shotts Coatbridge and Chryston Cumbernauld and Kilsyth East Kilbride Falkirk East Falkirk West Hamilton North and Bellshill Hamilton South Kilmarnock and Loudoun Motherwell and Wishaw

Glasgow	Glasgow Anniesland Glasgow Baillieston Glasgow Cathcart Glasgow Govan Glasgow Kelvin Glasgow Maryhill Glasgow Pollok Glasgow Rutherglen Glasgow Shettleston Glasgow Springburn

Highlands and Islands	Argyll and Bute Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber Moray Orkney Ross, Skye and Inverness West Shetland Western Isles

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North East Scotland	Aberdeen Central Aberdeen North Aberdeen South Angus Banff and Buchan Dundee East Dundee West Gordon West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine

South of Scotland	Ayr Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley Clydesdale Cunninghame South Dumfries East Lothian Galloway and Upper Nithsdale Roxburgh and Berwickshire Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale

West of Scotland	Clydebank and Milngavie Cunninghame North Dumbarton Eastwood Greenock and Inverclyde Paisley North Paisley South Strathkelvin and Bearsden West Renfrewshire

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