Greenock and Port Glasgow (UK Parliament constituency)

Greenock and Port Glasgow
Former Burgh constituency for the House of Commons
Major settlements	Greenock, Glasgow
1974–1997
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Greenock & Inverclyde West Renfrewshire
Created from	Greenock West Renfrewshire

Greenock and Port Glasgow was a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1974 until 1997, electing one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Boundaries

As first used, in the February 1974 general election, the constituency had been defined by the Second Periodical Review of the Boundary Commission to cover the burghs of Greenock and Port Glasgow in the county of Renfrew.^[1] The rest of the county was covered by the county constituencies of East Renfrewshire and West Renfrewshire, and the burgh constituency of Paisley.^[1]

Prior to the February 1974 election, the county had been covered by East Renfrewshire, West Renfrewshire, Greenock, and Paisley, with the Greenock constituency covering the burgh of Greenock, and the burgh of Port Glasgow within the West Renfrewshire constituency.^[1]

February 1974 boundaries were used also in the general elections of October 1974 and 1979.

In 1975, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, counties and burghs throughout Scotland had been abolished in favour of regions and districts and islands council areas. Therefore, in 1975, the constituency of Greenock and Port Glasgow had become effectively a constituency within the Inverclyde district of the Strathclyde region. For the 1983 general election new constituency boundaries were drawn, taking account of new loclal government boundaries.

1983 boundaries were used also in the general elections of 1987 and 1992.

In 1996, under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994, the Inverclyde district became a unitary council area

For the 1997 general election, the Greenock and Port Glasgow constituency was divided between the Greenock and Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West constituencies.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	February 1974	Dickson Mabon	Labour Co-operative
	1981		Social Democrat
	1983	Dr Norman Godman	Labour
1997		constituency abolished

Elections of the 1970s

General Election February 1974: Greenock and Port Glasgow
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	Dickson Mabon	20,565	48.3	N/A
	Liberal	Menzies Campbell	8,789	20.6	N/A
	Conservative	John Scott Younger	7,892	18.5	N/A
	SNP	John Kenneth Wright	4,881	11.5	N/A
	Communist	Alexander Cameron Murray	483	1.1	N/A
Majority			11,776	27.6	N/A
Turnout			42,610	71.1	N/A
	Labour Co-op win (new seat)

General Election October 1974: Greenock and Port Glasgow
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	Dickson Mabon	21,279	48.2	−0.1
	SNP	John Kenneth Wright	9,324	21.1	+9.6
	Liberal	Menzies Campbell	8,580	19.4	−1.2
	Conservative	Alexander Kinnear Foote	4,969	11.3	−5.2
Majority			11,955	18.5
Turnout			44,152	73.9	+2.8
	Labour Co-op hold		Swing

General Election 1979: Greenock and Port Glasgow
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	Dickson Mabon	24,071	53.0	+4.2
	Liberal	James Boyd	12,789	28.2	+8.8
	Conservative	Ronald Glasgow	4,926	10.9	−0.4
	SNP	John Kenneth Wright	3,435	7.6	−13.5
	Workers Revolutionary	Isabella Mathieson	176	0.4	N/A
Majority			11,282	24.9
Turnout			45,397	73.4	−0.5
	Labour Co-op hold		Swing

Elections of the 1980s

General Election 1983: Greenock and Port Glasgow
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Dr Norman Godman	20,650	46.8	−7.6
	Liberal	Alan James Blair	16,025	36.3	+9.2
	Conservative	D.C. Mason	4,314	9.8	−0.5
	SNP	Alan Hopkins Clayton	2,989	6.8	−1.0
	Workers Revolutionary	George Thomson McKinlay	114	0.3	−0.1
Majority			4,625	10.5
Turnout			44,092	74.2	+0.8
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1987: Greenock and Port Glasgow
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Dr Norman Godman	27,848	63.9	+17.1
	Liberal	John Henry Moody	7,793	17.9	−18.4
	Conservative	Thomas James Dalrymple Pearson	4,119	9.6	−0.2
	SNP	Thomas Lenehan	3,721	8.6	+1.8
Majority			20,055	46.0
Turnout			43,481	75.4	+1.2
	Labour hold		Swing	+8.0

Elections of the 1990s

General Election 1992: Greenock and Port Glasgow
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Dr Norman Godman	22,258	58.0	−5.9
	SNP	Ian Black	7,279	19.0	+10.4
	Conservative	John McCullough	4,779	11.7	+2.1
	Liberal Democrat	Christopher Nigel David Lambert	4,359	11.4	−6.5
Majority			14,979	39.0
Turnout			38,675	73.7	−1.4
	Labour hold		Swing

Notes and references

1. Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972 (ISBN 0-900178-09-4), F. W. S. Craig 1972

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "G" (part 2)