Central Ayrshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Central Ayrshire
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Central Ayrshire in Scotland for the 2005 general election.
Subdivisions of Scotland	North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire
Current constituency
Created	2005
Member of parliament	Philippa Whitford (SNP)
Created from	Cunninghame South, Ayr
1950–1983
Replaced by	Cunninghame South, Cunninghame North and Ayr^[1]
Overlaps
Scottish Parliament	South of Scotland
European Parliament constituency	Scotland

Central Ayrshire is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in the south-west of Scotland within the North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire council areas. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system of voting.

The seat has mostly belonged to the Labour Party since the 1950s, with the former MP Brian Donohoe having represented the seat since its creation in 2005, and was MP for the predecessor seat of Cunninghame South since 1992. Until the 2015 General Election in which the SNP's Philippa Whitford was elected with a majority of 13,589.

A diverse seat, the constituency covers more working class towns such as Irvine and parts of Kilwinning to the north, as well as the more affluent coastal resorts of Troon and Prestwick to the south. The seat also takes in a set of villages in rural South Ayrshire including the former mining communities of Annbank, Mossblown and Tarbolton alongside the villages of Loans, Dundonald and Symington.

Boundaries

As created in 1950 the constituency merged parts of the Bute and Northern Ayrshire and Kilmarnock constituencies. Following the Representation of the People Act 1948 the Central Ayrshire constituency between 1950 and 1955 consisted of Irvine, Kilwinning, Stewarton, Troon, Kilbirnie and part of the district of Kilmarnock.^[2] When abolished in 1983 the constituency was largely replaced by Cunninghame South, with Troon and its surrounding area forming part of the Ayr constituency.

The constituency was re-established in 2005, centred around the historic burgh of Irvine which was designated in the 1970s as a Glasgow overspill new town. Irvine is among the most deprived parts of Scotland and made up mostly of social housing, with patches of suburban developments around Perceton, central Irvine and in parts of Girdle Toll. The affluent coastal towns of Prestwick and Troon join the town as part of the constituency as well as outlying rural areas located south and east of Troon and Prestwick: these areas have held a considerable level of support for Conservative candidates locally and as part of the Ayr constituency in the Scottish parliament. Labour, and more recently the SNP, have performed strongly in west Troon, south and east Prestwick and in the former Mossblown, Annbank and St. Quivox electoral ward. Heathfield in Ayr north also forms part of the constituency: this area is relatively small and has elected Labour councillors locally.

Since the 2005 general election aspects of the Ayr, Cunninghame South and Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley constituencies were grouped together to form the Central Ayrshire constituency: it takes up the majority of former the Cunninghame South constituency, around half of the former Ayr constituency and a group of villages which formed part of the former Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley constituency. The constituency incorporates the electoral wards of Kilwinning (part: excludes the majority of the electoral ward west of the river Garnock and north of the B778, and B785: it effectively covers the south east of the town of Kilwinning and rural areas east of the river Lugton), Irvine West, Irvine East, Kyle, Troon, Prestwick, and the northern elements of the Maybole, North Carrick and Coylton electoral ward covering the stretch of the B744 from Belston to Annbank and the Auchincruive Agricultural College.^[3] The constituency also cuts into the Ayr North electoral ward with its southern boundaries following Seaforth Road and Lochside Road to include Healthfield.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1950–1983

Election		Member^[4]	Party
	1950	Archie Manuel	Labour
	1955	Douglas Spencer-Nairn	Unionist
	1959	Archie Manuel	Labour
	1970	David Lambie	Labour
1983		constituency abolished: see Cunninghame South

MPs 2005–present

Election		Member^[4]	Party
	2005	Brian Donohoe	Labour
	2015	Philippa Whitford	Scottish National Party

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2015: Central Ayrshire^[5]^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Philippa Whitford	26,999	53.2	+34.1
	Labour	Brian Donohoe	13,410	26.4	-21.3
	Conservative	Marc Hope^[7]	8,803	17.3	-3.0
	Liberal Democrat	Gordon Bain^[8]	917	1.8	-10.1
	Scottish Green	Veronika Tudhope^[9]	645	1.3	N/A
Majority			13,589	26.8	n/a
Turnout			50,774	72.5	+8.3
	SNP gain from Labour		Swing	+27.7

General Election 2010: Central Ayrshire^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Brian Donohoe	20,950	47.7	+1.3
	Conservative	Maurice Golden	8,943	20.4	-1.8
	SNP	John Mullen	8,364	19.0	+7.5
	Liberal Democrat	Andrew Chamberlain	5,236	11.9	-4.1
	Socialist Labour	James McDaid	422	1.0	-0.1
Majority			12,007	27.3
Turnout			43,915	64.2	+1.1
	Labour hold		Swing	+1.5

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Central Ayrshire^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Brian Donohoe	19,905	46.4%	-2.8
	Conservative	Garry Clark	9,482	22.1%	-4.1
	Liberal Democrat	Iain Kennedy	6,881	16.1%	+9.7
	SNP	Jahangir Hanif	4,969	11.6%	-3.0
	Scottish Socialist	Denise Morton	820	1.9%	-1.0
	Socialist Labour	Robert Cochrane	468	1.1%	+0.5
	UKIP	Jim Groves	346	0.8%	+0.7
Majority			10,423	24.3%
Turnout			42,871	62.5	+1.0
	Labour win (new seat)

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1979: Central Ayrshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Lambie	27,438	51.13
	Conservative	R Wilkinson	15,734	29.32
	SNP	Ian Macdonald	5,596	10.43
	Liberal	I Clarkson	4,896	9.12
Majority			11,704	21.82
Turnout				79.75
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election October 1974: Central Ayrshire ^[12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Lambie	21,188	45.09
	Conservative	Miss M. Carse	11,633	24.75
	SNP	L. Anderson	11,533	24.54
	Liberal	J. Watts	2,640	5.62
Majority			9,555	20.33
Turnout				79.28
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election February 1974: Central Ayrshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Lambie	23,639	48.99
	Conservative	R Gavin	17,362	35.98
	SNP	L Anderson	7,255	15.03
Majority			6,277	13.01
Turnout				82.08
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1970: Central Ayrshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Lambie	24,536	52.40
	Conservative	Ian Bruce Lang	19,569	41.79
	SNP	A MacDonald	2,383	5.09
	Independent	T Menzies	339	0.72
Majority			4,967	10.61
Turnout				80.56
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General Election 1966: Central Ayrshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Archibald Manuel	24,035	57.68
	Conservative	John Corrie	17,637	42.32
Majority			6,398	15.35
Turnout				82.12
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1964: Central Ayrshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Archibald Manuel	23,999	56.44
	Conservative	GR Rickman	18,523	43.56
Majority			5,476	12.88
Turnout				84.19
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1959: Central Ayrshire^[13]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Archibald Clark Manuel	21,901	51.99
	Unionist	Douglas Spencer-Nairn	20,225	48.01
Majority			1,676	3.98
Turnout				86.69
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing

General Election 1955: Central Ayrshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Douglas Spencer-Nairn	19,713	50.21
	Labour	Archibald Clark Manuel	19,546	49.79
Majority			167	0.43
Turnout				83.33
	Unionist gain from Labour		Swing

General Election 1951: Central Ayrshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Archibald Clark Manuel	21,003	52.10
	Unionist	William Rankine Milligan	19,310	47.90
Majority			1,693	4.20
Turnout				86.26
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1950: Central Ayrshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Archibald Clark Manuel	18,792	48.96
	Unionist	William Rankine Milligan	16,830	43.85
	Liberal	Charles Jack Coleman	2,760	7.19
Majority			1,962	5.11
Turnout				85.56
	Labour hold		Swing

References

↑ "'Ayrshire Central', Feb 1974 - May 1983". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
↑ Boundary Commission for Scotland
↑ Boundary Commission for Scotland
1 2 Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "A" (part 3)
↑ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
↑ http://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/documents/central%20ayrshire%20results.pdf
↑ http://www.southayrshireconservatives.org.uk/person/marc-hope-ppc-central-ayrshire. Missing or empty |title= (help)
↑ "List of selected candidates". Liberal Democrats. 4 March 2015. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
↑ http://www.irvinetimes.com/news/kilwinning/articles/2015/01/15/521405-green-party-name-central-ayrshire-candidate/
↑ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
↑ "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
↑ Whitaker's Almanack 1977
↑ Whitaker's Almanack 1963

Constituencies in Scotland by Holding Party (59)

Scottish National Party (54)	Aberdeen North Aberdeen South Airdrie and Shotts Angus Argyll and Bute Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock Banff and Buchan Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross Central Ayrshire Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East Dumfries and Galloway Dundee East Dundee West Dunfermline and West Fife East Dunbartonshire East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow East Lothian East Renfrewshire Edinburgh East Edinburgh North and Leith Edinburgh South West Falkirk Glasgow Central Glasgow North Glasgow North East Glasgow North West Glasgow South Glasgow South West Glenrothes Gordon Inverclyde Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey Kilmarnock and Loudoun Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath Lanark and Hamilton East Linlithgow and East Falkirk Livingston Midlothian Moray Motherwell and Wishaw Na h-Eileanan an Iar North Ayrshire and Arran North East Fife Ochil and South Perthshire Paisley and Renfrewshire North Paisley and Renfrewshire South Perth and North Perthshire Ross, Skye and Lochaber Rutherglen and Hamilton West Stirling West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine West Dunbartonshire

Labour (1)	Edinburgh South

Conservative (1)	Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale

Liberal Democrat (1)	Orkney and Shetland

Independent (2)	Edinburgh West Glasgow East

Scotland European constituency: Scottish National Party (2) Labour (2) Conservative (1) UKIP (1)

Westminster constituencies of Scotland

1708 to 1832 1832 to 1868 1868 to 1885 1885 to 1918 1918 to 1950 1950 to 1955 1955 to 1974 1974 to 1983 1983 to 1997 1997 to 2005

Current constituencies (2005 to present)

Aberdeen North Aberdeen South Airdrie & Shotts Angus Argyll & Bute Ayr, Carrick & Cumnock Banff & Buchan Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross Central Ayrshire Coatbridge, Chryston & Bellshill Cumbernauld, Kilsyth & Kirkintilloch East Dumfries & Galloway Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale & Tweeddale Dundee East Dundee West Dunfermline & West Fife East Dunbartonshire East Kilbride, Strathaven & Lesmahagow East Lothian East Renfrewshire Edinburgh East Edinburgh North & Leith Edinburgh South Edinburgh South West Edinburgh West Falkirk Glasgow Central Glasgow East Glasgow North Glasgow North East Glasgow North West Glasgow South Glasgow South West Glenrothes Gordon Inverclyde Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey Kilmarnock & Loudoun Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath Lanark & Hamilton East Linlithgow & East Falkirk Livingston Midlothian Moray Motherwell & Wishaw Na h-Eileanan an Iar North Ayrshire & Arran North East Fife Ochil & South Perthshire Orkney & Shetland Paisley & Renfrewshire North Paisley & Renfrewshire South Perth & North Perthshire Ross, Skye & Lochaber Rutherglen & Hamilton West Stirling West Aberdeenshire & Kincardine West Dunbartonshire

« 1918–1950 « Scottish Westminster constituencies 1950–1955 *» 1955–1974* »**

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