Edinburgh South West (UK Parliament constituency)

Edinburgh South West
Burgh constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Edinburgh South West in Scotland.
Subdivisions of Scotland	City of Edinburgh
Current constituency
Created	2005
Member of parliament	Joanna Cherry (SNP)
Created from	Edinburgh Pentlands and Edinburgh Central
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	Scotland

Edinburgh South West is a Scottish constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster), first used in the 2005 general election. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Boundaries

Edinburgh South West is one of five constituencies covering the City of Edinburgh council area. All are entirely within the city council area.

Prior to the 2005 general election, the city area had been covered by six constituencies and, of the six, there was one, Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, which straddled the boundary with the East Lothian council area, to include Musselburgh.

Edinburgh South West is mostly a replacement for the former Edinburgh Pentlands constituency, but excludes some of the east of that constituency. Also, it includes a south western portion of the former Edinburgh Central constituency.^[1] The Scottish Parliament uses different boundaries. Edinburgh South West is mostly contained within the Edinburgh Pentlands constituency for elections to the Scottish Parliament, with some parts of the north and east of the seat being located in the constituencies of Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh Southern and Edinburgh Western.

Edinburgh South West covers a south western portion of the city area. It has an urban north east and a suburban centre. The remainder is rural, and runs into the Pentland Hills in the south. The constituency comprises the following wards of the City of Edinburgh Council which were used in elections to the council at the time of the constituency's first contest in 2005: Balerno, Baberton, Colinton, Craiglockhart, Dalry, Firrhill, Fountainbridge, Moat, Murrayburn, Parkhead, Shandon and Sighthill. As a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, these wards were replaced with new wards in 2007. Current ward boundaries are not aligned with the constituency boundaries.

Member of Parliament

The seat is represented by Joanna Cherry who was elected in 2015. She is the SNP Justice and Home Affairs spokesperson in the House of Commons.

This seat was formed from Edinburgh Central and Edinburgh Pentlands.

Edinburgh Central

• to 1987 Sir Alexander Fletcher (Conservative)
• 1987 - 2005 Alistair Darling (Labour)

Edinburgh Pentlands

• 1974 - 1997 Malcolm Rifkind (Conservative)
• 1997 - 2005 Lynda Clark (Labour)

Edinburgh South West

• 2005 - 2015 Alistair Darling (Labour)
• 2015 - present Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party)

Election results

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2015: Edinburgh South West[2][3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Joanna Cherry[4]	22,168	43.0	+30.8
	Labour	Ricky Henderson[5]	14,033	27.2	-15.6
	Conservative	Gordon Lindhurst[6]	10,444	20.2	-4.0
	Scottish Green	Richard Doherty[7]	1,965	3.8	+1.9
	Liberal Democrat	Daniel Farthing-Sykes[8]	1,920	3.7	-14.3
	UKIP	Richard Lucas[9]	1,072	2.1	n/a
Majority			8,135	15.8
Turnout			51,602	71.5	+3.0
	SNP gain from Labour		Swing	+23.2

General Election 2010: Edinburgh South West[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alistair Darling	19,473	42.8	+3.0
	Conservative	Jason Rust	11,026	24.3	+1.0
	Liberal Democrat	Tim McKay	8,194	18.0	-3.1
	SNP	Kaukab Stewart	5,530	12.2	+1.6
	Scottish Green	Clare Cooney	872	1.9	-1.6
	Scottish Socialist	Colin Fox	319	0.7	-0.6
	Communist League	Caroline Bellamy	48	0.1	N/A
Majority			8,447	18.6	+2.1
Turnout			45,462	68.5	+3.5
	Labour hold		Swing	+1.0

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Edinburgh South West[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alistair Darling	17,476	39.8	N/A
	Conservative	Gordon Buchan	10,234	23.3	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Simon Clark	9,252	21.1	N/A
	SNP	Nick Elliott-Cannon	4,654	10.6	N/A
	Scottish Green	John Blair-Fish	1,520	3.5	N/A
	Scottish Socialist	Pat Smith	585	1.3	N/A
	UKIP	William Boys	205	0.5	N/A
Majority			7,242	16.5
Turnout			43,926	65.4
	Labour win (new seat)

See also

• Politics of Edinburgh

Notes and references

1. Fifth Periodical Review, Boundary Commission for Scotland
2. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
3. http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/download/1363/uk_parliamentary_election_results_2015 23Jun15
4. SNP pin election hopes on high profile Yes campaigners
5. https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2015/ricky-henderson-gets-labour-nomination/Ricky Henderson gets Labour nomination]
6. Gordon Lindhurst selected for Edinburgh South West - Edinburgh Conservatives & Unionists
7. https://twitter.comSighthillGorgie
8. http://www.libdems.org.uk/general_election_candidates#Scotland
9. http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/2015guide/edinburghsouthwest/
10. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
11. "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "E" (part 1)

Coordinates: 55°53′00″N 3°18′32″W / 55.88333°N 3.30889°W