| This article is part of a series within the Politics of the United Kingdom on the |
| Politics of Scotland |
|---|
 |
The 2017 Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire by-election was a by-election held on 8 June 2017 for the Scottish Parliament constituency of Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire. It was triggered by the resignation of John Lamont.
Conservative politician John Lamont was elected as MSP for the constituency at the 2016 election, having first been elected in 2007. Lamont announced on 25 April 2017 that he would be standing in the 2017 UK general election and submitted his resignation as MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire with effect from 4 May, which triggered a by-election. [1] Ken Macintosh, the Presiding Officer scheduled the by-election for 8 June, the same date as the UK general election. [2]
Four candidates were nominated: Conservative Rachael Hamilton, Gail Hendry for the Scottish National Party, Sally Prentice for Labour and Catriona Bhatia for the Liberal Democrats. [3] Hamilton, who had been a regional MSP for South Scotland, resigned her seat in advance of the by-election. [4]
The Scottish Conservatives held the seat with an increased majority.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Rachael Hamilton | 20,658 | 53.55 | −1.65 | |
| SNP | Gail Hendry | 11,320 | 29.34 | −2.46 | |
| Labour | Sally Prentice | 3,406 | 8.83 | +3.53 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Catriona Bhatia | 3,196 | 8.28 | +0.58 | |
| Majority | 9,338 | 24.21 | +1.8 | ||
| Turnout | 38,580 | 69.8 [6] | |||
| Conservative hold | Swing | +0.4 | |||
| Scottish Parliament election, 2016: Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire [7] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notes: | Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. | ||||||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Party votes | % | ±% | ||
| Conservative |  John Lamont | 18,257 | 55.2 | +10.3 | 15,452 | 46.65 | +15.16 | ||
| SNP | Paul Wheelhouse | 10,521 | 31.8 | +5.4 | 10,068 | 30.40 | -4.45 | ||
| Liberal Democrats | Jim Hume | 2,551 | 7.7 | -9.6 | 2,851 | 8.61 | -6.14 | ||
| Labour | Barrie Cunning | 1,766 | 5.3 | -5.0 | 2,251 | 6.80 | -4.23 | ||
| Scottish Green | 1,481 | 4.47 | +1.11 | ||||||
| UKIP | 771 | 2.33 | +0.66 | ||||||
| Independent | 112 | ||||||||
| RISE | 68 | ||||||||
| Solidarity | 67 | ||||||||
| Informal votes | 88 | 68 | |||||||
| Total valid votes | 33,095 | 33,121 | |||||||
| Conservative hold | Majority | 7,736 | 23.4 | +4.9 | |||||
The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. The council area occupies approximately the same area as the historic shires of Berwickshire, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire, and Selkirkshire. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the west, and the English ceremonial counties of Cumbria and Northumberland to the south. The largest settlement is Galashiels, and the administrative centre is Newtown St Boswells.
Christine Grahame is a Scottish politician who served as a Deputy Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament from 2016 to 2021. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale constituency since 2011, having previously represented the South of Scotland region from 1999 to 2011.
Kenneth Donald Macintosh is a Scottish politician who served as the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament from 2016 to 2021. Elected as a member of Scottish Labour, he suspended his party membership on becoming Presiding Officer. Macintosh was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) from 1999 to 2021, representing the Eastwood constituency from 1999 to 2016, and then the West Scotland region from 2016 to 2021.
Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in the south of Scotland within the Scottish Borders council area. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system of voting. Since 2017 the MP has been John Lamont of the Conservative Party.
Clydesdale is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the council area of South Lanarkshire. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality method of election. It is one of nine constituencies in the South Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Roxburgh and Berwickshire was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament until 2011. It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality method of election. It was also one of nine constituencies in the South of Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality method of election. Also, however, it was one of nine constituencies in the South of Scotland electoral region, which elected seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
John Robert Lamont is a Scottish Conservative Party politician and solicitor who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk since 2017, and was Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland from July to November 2024. Lamont previously served as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, later Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire after boundary changes, from 2007 to 2017. He served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland between October 2022 to July 2024.
The 2011 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament.
James Anthony Kelly is a Scottish politician who has served as General Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party since 2021. He was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow region between 2016 and 2021, having previously been MSP for Rutherglen from 2007 to 2016.
Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the council area of Scottish Borders. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality method of election. It is also one of nine constituencies in the South Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering parts of the council areas of Midlothian and Scottish Borders. Created for the 2011 election, it elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality method of election. It is one of nine constituencies in the South Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Galloway and West Dumfries is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the council area of Dumfries and Galloway. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality method of election. It is also one of nine constituencies in the South Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Dumfriesshire is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the council area of Dumfries and Galloway. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality method of election. It is also one of nine constituencies in the South Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Paul Richard William Wheelhouse is a former Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who served as Minister for Energy, Connectivity and the Islands from 2018 to 2021. He was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South Scotland region from 2011 until 2021 and Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy in the Scottish Government from May 2016 to June 2018.
Calum Robert Kerr is a Scottish National Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk from 2015 to 2017. During his tenure in Parliament, he was the SNP's Environment and Rural Affairs spokesperson in the House of Commons.
This is a list of members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) who were returned to the fifth session of the Scottish Parliament. Of the 129 MSPs returned at the 2016 general election, 73 were returned from first past the post constituencies with a further 56 members returned from eight regions, each electing seven MSPs as a form of mixed member proportional representation.
Rachael Georgina Hamilton is a Scottish Conservative Party politician, who has served as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire since 2017.
Michelle Lorraine Ballantyne is a British property developer, former politician and nurse who served as Leader of Reform UK Scotland from January 2021 to February 2022. She was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South Scotland region from 2017 to 2021, having been elected for the Scottish Conservatives.
The February 2020 Scottish Conservative Party leadership election was the fourth internal party election to elect the next leader of the Scottish Conservatives, part of the British Conservative Party and the second-largest political party in the devolved Scottish Parliament. Ruth Davidson, who won the previous leadership election in 2011, resigned on 29 August 2019. Two candidates contested the election: Jackson Carlaw MSP, who served as the Scottish Conservatives' interim leader, and Michelle Ballantyne MSP. Carlaw was seen as the favourite in the contest, and won the endorsement of most of the party's MSPs and MPs. Carlaw won the election on 14 February 2020, winning more than three-quarters of the votes of party members.
