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Rutherglen and Hamilton West

UK Parliament constituency (2005–2024)

Summary

UK Parliament constituency (2005–2024)

FieldValue
nameRutherglen and Hamilton West
parliamentuk
map1RutherglenHamiltonWest
map_size250px
map_entityScotland
year2005
abolished2024
typeBurgh
previousGlasgow Rutherglen and Hamilton South
nextRutherglen
townsBlantyre, Burnbank, Burnside, Cambuslang, Hillhouse, Newton, Rutherglen
regionScotland
countySouth Lanarkshire
europeanScotland

Rutherglen and Hamilton West was a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which was created for the 2005 general election. It covered almost all of the former constituency of Glasgow Rutherglen and most of the former constituency of Hamilton South, and it elected one member of parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post voting system.

Margaret Ferrier won the seat at the 2019 snap general election for the Scottish National Party; she had previously held the seat from 2015 to 2017. Ferrier had the SNP whip withdrawn on 1 October 2020 after a breach of COVID-19 pandemic regulations, and sat as an independent from that date onward.

In June 2023, Ferrier was handed a 30-day suspension from the Commons for her actions, triggering a recall petition which ran until 31 July 2023. On 1 August, South Lanarkshire Council confirmed the recall petition had been successful, as more than 10% of the Rutherglen and Hamilton West electorate had signed. As a result, Ferrier lost her seat and the seat immediately became vacant. A by-election was held on 5 October to elect a new Member of Parliament, won by Labour's Michael Shanks.

Historically a safe Labour seat, in 2015 it was gained by the Scottish National Party, when they won a record 56 of the 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons; ending 51 years of Labour Party dominance at UK general elections in Scotland. Two years later, at the 2017 general election, the seat was taken back by Labour by just 265 votes. Coincidentally in the neighbouring Lanark and Hamilton East, sitting MP Angela Crawley held her seat by just 266 votes.

Further to the completion of the 2023 periodic review of Westminster constituencies, the seat was abolished. Subject to boundary changes entailing the loss of "Hamilton West" (assigned to a new Hamilton and Clyde Valley constituency), it reverted to the name of Rutherglen, and was first contested at the 2024 general election.

Boundaries

The Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency covered part of the South Lanarkshire council area. The rest of the council area was covered by the Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow and Lanark and Hamilton East constituencies. The Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale constituency also covered part of the Dumfries and Galloway council area and part of the Scottish Borders council area.

The terms of the Rutherglen and Hamilton West name refer to the town of Rutherglen and the west of the town of Hamilton.

The constituency was composed of the electoral wards:

  • In full: Blantyre, Cambuslang East, Cambuslang West, Rutherglen Central and North, Rutherglen South.
  • In part: Hamilton North and East, Hamilton South, Hamilton West and Earnock.

Constituency profile

Rutherglen and Hamilton West was an urban seat in Greater Glasgow. It contained commuter areas into the city of Glasgow, with train travel times as short as 15 minutes from the city centre.

The seat can be understood as socially divided, and it contains many areas of high deprivation, particularly on the outskirts of Rutherglen, eastern Cambuslang, Blantyre and western Hamilton; however, parts of central Rutherglen, western Cambuslang and the Earnock area of Hamilton have markedly lower rates of deprivation.

The seat itself voted approximately 62% in favour of remaining within the European Union in the 2016 Brexit referendum and voters in the constituency voted approximately 50% No, 50% Yes in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Historically dominated by Labour, Margaret Ferrier of the SNP gained the seat for the party for the first time in 2015, lost the seat to Labour in 2017, before regaining it in 2019 with an increased majority. The seat was regarded as an important battleground constituency between Labour and the SNP, having changed hands three times in the past 10 years.

At the 2022 South Lanarkshire Council election, Low Blantyre and the Bankhead and Fernhill areas of Rutherglen voted Labour, while the Burnside area of Rutherglen voted Liberal Democrat, and the rest of the constituency voted SNP.

Overall, the town of Rutherglen was the SNP's poorest performing area, Blantyre was Labour and the SNP's best performing area, and Cambuslang and Hamilton sat close to the constituency average.

Members of Parliament

ElectionMemberParty
Labour Co-operative}}"2005url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220101223235/https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/pawnbrokers-parliament-tommy-mcavoy-looks-13195438date=1 January 2022 }}, Marc McLean, Daily Record, 11 September 2018. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
2010Tom Greatrex
Scottish National Party}}"2015Margaret Ferrier
Labour Co-operative}}"2017Gerard Killen
Scottish National Party}}"2019Margaret Ferrier
Independent politician}}"2020Independent
Labour Co-operative}}"2023 by-electionMichael Shanks

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

References

;Specific

;General

References

  1. (1 October 2020). "MP Margaret Ferrier's Covid Parliament trip 'indefensible'". BBC News.
  2. (2023-06-09). "Scotland's first recall petition published with details of where to sign".
  3. (1 August 2023). "Margaret Ferrier: Covid breach MP loses seat after recall petition".
  4. "Boundary Commission Scotland 2023 Review Report". Boundary Commission Scotland.
  5. "UK Parliament constituencies 2005 onwards: Rutherglen and Hamilton West". [[Boundary commissions (United Kingdom).
  6. "SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation)".
  7. [http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/rutherglen-cambuslang-communities-top-list-8784233 Rutherglen and Cambuslang communities at top of list of most deprived areas in Scotland] {{Webarchive. link. (1 January 2022 , Edel Kenealy, Daily Record, 8 September 2016)
  8. [https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/shock-stats-show-rutherglen-more-13754744.amp Shock stats show Rutherglen has more unemployment, highest rate of alcohol and drug admissions and more social work referrals than anywhere else in South Lanarkshire] {{Webarchive. link. (1 January 2022 , Daily Record, 19 December 2018)
  9. [https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/rutherglen-cambuslang-areas-among-scotlands-21484294 Rutherglen and Cambuslang areas among Scotland's poorest, according to Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation stats] {{Webarchive. link. (1 January 2022 , Daily Record, 12 February 2020)
  10. "Revised estimates of leave vote in Westminster constituencies".
  11. Council, South Lanarkshire. "South Lanarkshire Council area breakdown Elections – South Lanarkshire Council".
  12. "Scotland 'key battleground' for Labour at next UK general election, Scottish Fabians report finds".
  13. (14 April 2022). "South Lanarkshire Council 2022".
  14. [https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/pawnbrokers-parliament-tommy-mcavoy-looks-13195438 From a pawnbrokers to Parliament - Tommy McAvoy looks back on a career that took him to the House of Lords] {{Webarchive. link. (1 January 2022 , Marc McLean, Daily Record, 11 September 2018. Retrieved 1 January 2022.)
  15. (12 September 2023). "Rutherglen and Hamilton West By-election - Thursday 5 October 2023". South Lanarkshire Council.
  16. Meighan, Craig. (6 October 2023). "Scottish Labour wins key Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election". STV News.
  17. "UK Parliamentary general election - Thursday 12 December 2019".
  18. "Rutherglen & Hamilton West parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". [[BBC News]].
  19. (28 January 2020). "Commons Briefing Paper 8749. General Election 2019: results and analysis". [[House of Commons Library]].
  20. (29 January 2019). "Commons Briefing Paper 7979. General Election 2017: results and analysis". [[House of Commons Library]].
  21. "Election Data 2015". [[Electoral Calculus]].
  22. Council, South Lanarkshire. "UK Parliamentary General Election Results South Lanarkshire Council 2015 Elections - South Lanarkshire Council".
  23. "UK Polling Report".
  24. "Election Data 2010". [[Electoral Calculus]].
  25. http://www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk/downloads/download/631/uk_parliamentary_election_results_2010 {{dead link. (October 2020)
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

historic-parliamentary-constituencies-in-scotland-(westminster) rutherglen cambuslang blantyre,-south-lanarkshire constituencies-of-the-parliament-of-the-united-kingdom-established-in-2005 constituencies-of-the-parliament-of-the-united-kingdom-disestablished-in-2024 hamilton,-south-lanarkshire politics-of-south-lanarkshire
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