Na h-Eileanan an Iar (UK Parliament constituency)

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Na h-Eileanan an Iar County constituency
Na h-Eileanan an Iar shown within Scotland
Created:	1918
MP:	Angus MacNeil
Party:	Scottish National Party
Type:	House of Commons
Council areas:	Na h-Eileanan Siar
EP constituency:	Scotland

Na h-Eileanan an Iar (formerly Western Isles; English pronunciation: /nə ˈhɪlənən ənˈjɪər/) is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, created in 1918. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Contents 1 History 2 Boundaries 3 Local government areas 4 Politics 5 Members of Parliament 6 Election results 6.1 1910s 6.2 1920s 6.3 1930s 6.4 1940s 6.5 1950s 6.6 1960s 6.7 1970s 6.8 1980s 6.9 1990s 6.10 2000s 7 See also 8 References

[edit] History

The constituency was formed by merging together areas which were formerly within the Ross and Cromarty constituency and the Inverness-shire constituency.

Na h-Eileanan an Iar is derived from the Gaelic for Western Isles, which was the constituency's name prior to the 2005 general election. A similar constituency, called Western Isles, is used by the Scottish Parliament.

[edit] Boundaries

The constituency area is that of the Outer Hebrides, known also as Na h-Eileanan Siar, and the constituency has the smallest electorate in the United Kingdom, one-fifth of the size of the largest, the Isle of Wight, with the latter also being an island constituency. However the Isle of Wight is a substantially smaller parliamentary constituency in geographical terms. It has been suggested that Na h-Eileanan an Iar could be combined with the Orkney and Shetland constituency: the resulting combined electorate would still be well below the average constituency quota. Meanwhile the Scottish Boundary commission in 1980 originally proposed that the seat should be extended to include the Skye and Lochalsh areas, however this was overturned at a public enquiry. Generally, overriding considerations of sheer geographical size, a disparate population and of convenience for the MPs concerned as well as tradition and identity have tended to override the arguments about numerical imbalance. Furthermore, a change in the Boundary Commission's rules in 2000 added rule 3a which forbids Orkney or Shetland being combined with another council area.

[edit] Local government areas

When created the area of the constituency was divided between two local government areas, the counties of Ross and Cromarty and Inverness-shire. The division line was the Lewis-Harris boundary, with Lewis in Ross and Cromarty and Harris in Inverness-shire.

In 1975 the constituency area became also an island council area, known as the Western Isles council area. That same area became one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland in 1996. The council area is known also as Na h-Eileanan Siar.

[edit] Politics

The seat has been a two-way marginal between the Labour Party and the Scottish National Party for many years. In the 2005 general election it was one of only two seats outside Northern Ireland in which the Conservative Party obtained less than 5% of the vote and was pushed into fifth place (the other was Blaenau Gwent in Wales).

[edit] Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Donald Murray	Liberal
	1922	Sir William Dingwall Mitchell Cotts	National Liberal
	1923	Alexander Mackenzie Livingstone	Liberal
	1929	Thomas Ramsay	Liberal
	1931		National Liberal
	1935	Malcolm Macmillan	Labour
	1970	Donald Stewart	SNP
	1987	Calum MacDonald	Labour
	2005	Angus MacNeil	SNP

[edit] Election results

[edit] 1910s

General Election 1918: Western Isles [1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Dr Donald Murray	3,765	47.3
	Coalition Liberal	William Dingwall Mitchell Cotts	3,375	42.5
	Highland Land League	H. MacGowan	809	10.2
Majority			390	4.8
Turnout			7,949	43.6

[edit] 1920s

General Election 1922: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National Liberal	Sir William Dingwall Mitchell Cotts	6,177	54.1	+11.6
	Liberal	Donald Murray	5,238	45.9	-1.4
Majority			939	8.2	+3.4
Turnout			11,415	54.1	+10.5
	National Liberal gain from Liberal		Swing	6.5

General Election 1923: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Alexander Livingstone	3,391	39.6	-6.3
	Conservative	W. S. Morrison	3,158	36.9	N/A
	Independent Labour	H. McCowan	2,011	23.5
Majority			233	2.7	-5.5
Turnout			6,549	40.1	-14.0
	Liberal hold		Swing

General Election 1924: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Alexander Livingstone	4,579	54.2	14.6
	Conservative	W. S. Morrison	2,318	28.6	-8.3
	Labour	A. G. Burns	1,454	17.2
Majority			2,161	25.6	+22.9
Turnout			8,451	39.1	-1.0
	Liberal hold		Swing	11.5

General Election 1929: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Ramsay	4,877	44.1	-10.1
	Labour	J. M. MacDiarmid	3,589	32.5	15.3
	Conservative	I. M. Moffat-Pender	2,593	23.4	-5.2
Majority			1,288	21.6	-14.0
Turnout			11,059	40.5	+1.4
	Liberal hold		Swing

[edit] 1930s

General Election 1931: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National Liberal	Thomas Ramsay	5,793	54.8	+10.7
	Conservative	I. M. Moffatt Pender	4,785	45.2	+21.8
Majority			1,008	9.6	-2.0
Turnout			10,578	36.8	-3.7
	National Liberal hold		Swing

General Election 1935: Western Isles [2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Malcolm Macmillan	5,421	41.0
	National Liberal	Thomas Ramsay	4,076	30.9	-23.9
	Scottish National	Alexander MacEwan	3,704	28.1
Majority			1,345	10.1
Turnout			12,947	46.8	+8.0
	Labour gain from National Liberal		Swing

[edit] 1940s

General Election 1945: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Malcolm Macmillan	5,914	45.7	+4.7
	Liberal	H. M. Sinclair	4,277	33.0
	Conservative	Iain Macleod	2,756	21.3
Majority			1,637	12.7	+2.6
Turnout			12,947	53.3	+6.5
	Labour hold		Swing

[edit] 1950s

This section requires expansion.

[edit] 1960s

General Election 1964: Western Isles[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	M.K. Macmillan	8,740	55.14
	Liberal	D.B. Macleod	4,894	30.88
	Conservative	C.A. Cameron	2,217	13.99
Majority			3,846	24.26
Turnout				66.88
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1966: Western Isles[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	M.K. Macmillan	8,565	61.03
	Conservative	C.A. Cameron	2,832	20.18
	Liberal	J.F.M. Macleod	2,638	18.80
Majority			5,733	40.85
Turnout				61.49
	Labour hold		Swing

[edit] 1970s

General Election 1970: Western Isles[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Scottish National	Donald Stewart	6,568	43.12
	Labour	M.K. Macmillan	5,842	38.35
	Conservative	R.K. MacLeod	2,812	18.53
Majority			726	4.77
Turnout			23,533	64.73
	Scottish National gain from Labour		Swing

General Election February 1974: Western Isles[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Scottish National	Donald Stewart	10,079	67.05
	Labour	A.W. Wilson	2,879	19.15
	Conservative	J.J. Mackay	1,042	6.93
	United Labour Party (UK)	M.K. Macmillan	1,031	6.86
Majority			7,200	47.90
Turnout				66.27
	Scottish National hold		Swing

General Election October 1974: Western Isles[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Scottish National	Donald Stewart	8,758	61.45
	Labour	M. Doig	3,526	24.74
	Conservative	N.K. Wilson	1,180	8.28
	Liberal	N. Macmillan	789	5.54
Majority			5,232	36.71
Turnout				63.41
	Scottish National hold		Swing

General Election 1979: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Scottish National	Donald Stewart	7,941	52.5
	Labour	A. Matheson	4,878	32.3
	Conservative	M. Morrison	1,600	10.6
	Liberal	N. MacLeod	700	4.6
Majority			3,063	20.3
Turnout				67.5
	Scottish National hold		Swing

[edit] 1980s

General Election 1983: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Scottish National	Donald Stewart	8,272	54.5
	Labour	Brian Wilson	4,560	30.1
	Conservative	M. Morrison	1,460	9.6
	Liberal	N. MacLeod	876	5.8
Majority			3,712	24.5
Turnout				66.5
	Scottish National hold		Swing

General Election 1987: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Calum MacDonald	7,041	42.7
	Scottish National	Ian Smith	4,701	28.5
	Social Democrat	Kenneth McIver	3,419	20.7
	Conservative	M. Morrison	1,336	8.1
Majority			2,340	14.2
Turnout				70.2
	Labour gain from Scottish National		Swing

[edit] 1990s

General Election 1992: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Calum MacDonald	7,664	47.8
	Scottish National	Frances MacFarlane	5,961	37.2
	Conservative	Robert Heany	1,362	8.5
	Liberal Democrat	Neil Mitchison	552	3.4
	Independent	A. Price	491	3.1
Majority			1,703	10.6
Turnout				70.4
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1997: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Calum MacDonald	8,955	55.6
	Scottish National	Anne Lorne Gillies	5,379	33.4
	Conservative	James McGrigor	1,071	6.6
	Liberal Democrat	Neil Mitchison	495	3.1
	Referendum Party	Ralph Lionel	206	1.3	N/A
Majority			3,576	22.2
Turnout				70.1
	Labour hold		Swing

[edit] 2000s

General Election 2001: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Calum MacDonald	5,924	45.0	−10.6
	Scottish National	Alasdair Nicholson	4,850	36.9	+3.5
	Conservative	Douglas Taylor	1,250	9.5	+2.8
	Liberal Democrat	John Horne	849	6.5	+3.4
	Scottish Socialist	Joanne Telfer	286	2.2	N/A
Majority			1,074	8.1
Turnout			13,159	60.6	−9.5
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 2005: Na h-Eileanan an Iar
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Scottish National	Angus MacNeil	6,213	44.9	+8.0
	Labour	Calum MacDonald	4,772	34.5	−10.5
	Liberal Democrat	Jean Davis	1,096	7.9	+1.4
	Christian Vote	James Hargreaves	1,048	7.6	N/A
	Conservative	Andy Maciver	610	4.4	−5.1
	Scottish Socialist	Joanne Telfer	97	0.7	−1.5
Majority			1,441	10.4
Turnout			13,836	64.1	+4.0
	Scottish National gain from Labour		Swing	+9.3

Confirmed candidates for the next UK general election[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Jean Davies
	Scottish National	Angus MacNeil
	Labour	Donald John MacSween

[edit] See also

• Malapportionment
• Rotten borough

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[edit] References

1. ^ Whitaker's Almanack, 1920
2. ^ Whitaker's Almanack, 1939
3. ^ Kimber's UK General Election results 1964
4. ^ Kimber's UK General Election results 1966
5. ^ Kimber's UK General Election results 1970
6. ^ Kimber's UK General Election results 1974 (Feb)
7. ^ Kimber's UK General Election results 1974 (Oct)
8. ^ Na h-Eileanan an Iar, UKPollingReport