Paisley South (UK Parliament constituency)

Paisley South
Former Burgh constituency for the House of Commons
Subdivisions of Scotland	Renfrewshire
Major settlements	Paisley
1983–2005
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Paisley & Renfrewshire South Paisley & Renfrewshire North
Created from	Paisley, West Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire[1]

Paisley South was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.

History

The constituency was created when the former Paisley constituency was divided for the 1983 general election. It was abolished for the 2005 general election, when Paisley was represented by the new constituencies of Paisley & Renfrewshire South and Paisley & Renfrewshire North.

Boundaries

The Renfrew District electoral divisions of Johnstone, Paisley Central, and Paisley Gleniffer.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1983	Norman Buchan	Labour
	1990 by-election	Gordon McMaster	Labour
	1997 by-election	Douglas Alexander	Labour
2005		constituency abolished: see Paisley & Renfrewshire South and Paisley & Renfrewshire North

Election results

Elections of the 1980s

General Election 1983: Paisley South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Norman Buchan	15,633	41.4	N/A
	Liberal	Mrs. Elspeth M. Buchanan	9,104	24.1	N/A
	Conservative	Joseph Knox	7,819	20.7	N/A
	SNP	James Robert Mitchell	4,918	13.1	N/A
	Ecology	David George Mellor	271	0.7	N/A
Majority			6,529	17.3	N/A
Turnout			37,745	72.5	N/A
	Labour win (new seat)

General Election 1987: Paisley South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Norman Buchan	21,611	56.2	+14.8
	Liberal	Alistair Carmichael	5,826	15.1	−9.0
	Conservative	Miss Dorothy Ann Williamson	5,644	14.7	−6.0
	SNP	James Robert Mitchell	5,398	14.0	+0.9
Majority			15,785	41.1
Turnout			38,479	75.3	+2.8
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections of the 1990s

By-Election 1990: Paisley South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gordon McMaster	12,485	46.1	−10.1
	SNP	Iain Macdonald Lawson	7,455	27.5	+13.5
	Conservative	John Cooperwhite Workman	3,627	13.4	−1.3
	Liberal Democrat	Alan Reid	2,660	9.8	−5.3
	Green	Elizabeth Reid Collie	835	3.1	N/A
Majority			5,030	18.6
Turnout			27,062	55.0	−20.3
	Labour hold		Swing	−11.8

General Election 1992: Paisley South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gordon McMaster	18,202	50.7	−5.5
	SNP	Iain Macdonald Lawson	8,653	24.1	+10.1
	Conservative	Mrs. Sheila Galloway Laidlaw	5,703	15.9	+1.2
	Liberal Democrat	Alan Reid	3,271	9.1	−6.0
	Natural Law	Stephen Rex Porter	93	0.3	N/A
Majority			9,549	26.6
Turnout			35,922	75.0	−0.3
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1997: Paisley South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gordon McMaster	21,482	57.5	+6.8
	SNP	William Martin	8,732	23.4	−0.7
	Liberal Democrat	Miss Eileen Patricia McCartin	3,500	9.4	+0.3
	Conservative	Robin William Rankin Reid	3,237	8.6	−7.3
	Referendum	James Lardner	254	0.7	N/A
	Scottish Socialist	Sean Anthony Clerkin	146	0.4	N/A
Majority			12,750	34.1
Turnout			37,351	69.1	−5.9
	Labour hold		Swing

By-Election 1997: Paisley South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Alexander	10,346	44.1	−13.4
	SNP	Ian Blackford	7,615	32.5	+9.1
	Liberal Democrat	Miss Eileen Patricia McCartin	2,582	11.0	+1.6
	Conservative	Mrs. Sheila Galloway Laidlaw	1,643	7.0	−1.7
	ProLife Alliance	John A. Deighan	578	2.5	N/A
	Scottish Socialist	Frances Curran	306	1.3	+0.9
	Independent	Charles W. McLauchlan	155	0.7	N/A
	Socialist Labour	Christopher Herriot	153	0.7	N/A
	Natural Law	Kenneth R. Blair	57	0.2	N/A
Majority			2,731	11.7
Turnout			23,435	42.9	−26.2
	Labour hold		Swing	−11.3

Elections of the 2000s

General Election 2001: Paisley South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Alexander	17,830	58.4	+0.9
	SNP	Brian Lawson	5,920	19.4	−4.0
	Liberal Democrat	Brian O’Malley	3,178	10.4	+1.0
	Conservative	Andrew James Cossar	2,301	7.5	−1.1
	Scottish Socialist	Frances Curran	835	2.7	N/A
	ProLife Alliance	Mrs. Patricia Margaret Graham	346	1.1	N/A
	Independent	Terence Kelly O'Donnell	126	0.4	N/A
Majority			11,910	39.0
Turnout			30,536	57.2	−11.9
	Labour hold		Swing

References

1. "'Paisley South', June 1983 up to May 1997". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Retrieved 13 March 2016.

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