Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (UK Parliament constituency)

Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk in Scotland
Subdivisions of Scotland	Scottish Borders
Electorate	73,191 [1]
Major settlements	Galashiels, Hawick
Current constituency
Created	2005
Member of Parliament	John Lamont (Conservative)
Seats	One
Created from	Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, and Roxburgh and Berwickshire

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.

The constituency name comes from the three counties it covers; Berwickshire, Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire.

A mostly rural constituency, it includes the towns of Coldstream, Duns, Eyemouth, Galashiels, Hawick, Jedburgh, Kelso, Melrose and Selkirk.

Boundaries

Map of current boundaries

As created by the Fifth Review of the Boundary Commission for Scotland. The Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk constituency covers part of the Scottish Borders council area. The rest of the council area is covered by the Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale constituency, which also covers part of the Dumfries and Galloway council area and part of the South Lanarkshire council area.

The Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk constituency is predominantly rural, and incorporates the electoral wards of:

• In full: Hawick and Hermitage, Selkirkshire, Hawick and Denholm, Jedburgh and District, Kelso and District, Mid Berwickshire, East Berwickshire, Leaderdale and Melrose, Galashiels and District
• In part: Tweeddale East

History

Michael Moore held the seat from its creation in 2005, and was MP for the predecessor seat of Tweeddale, Ettrick & Lauderdale from 1997 to 2005. The seat and its predecessor seats (Roxburgh and Berwickshire and Tweeddale, Ettrick & Lauderdale) had a strong Liberal Party presence since the 1960s, with former Liberal leader David Steel having represented the seat from 1965 to 1997. Historically, the Conservative Party has been the main challenger to the seat, and they currently hold the equivalent Holyrood seat. At the 2015 general election, Moore and the Liberal Democrats were pushed into third place in the constituency, and the seat was narrowly won by Calum Kerr of the Scottish National Party over the Conservative candidate, John Lamont, by 328 votes.

At the 2017 snap election, Lamont (who contested the seat for the fourth consecutive election) won the seat from Calum Kerr of the SNP by 11,060 votes - polling more votes than any other candidate in Scotland, and making it the safest Conservative seat in Scotland.

Two years later, at the 2019 general election, held in the wake of parliamentary deadlock and Brexit negotiations, the Conservatives called another election and achieved their best national result since 1987, winning a comfortable majority of 80 seats at the election, with Lamont being re-elected as MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk. He held the seat with a reduced majority of 5,148 votes, due to a swing towards the SNP and Liberal Democrats.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member [2]	Party
	2005	Michael Moore	Liberal Democrat
	2015	Calum Kerr	SNP
	2017	John Lamont	Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

Next general election: Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Lamont [3]
	Scottish Green	Neil MacKinnon [4]
	SNP	David Wilson [5]
Majority
Turnout
			Swing

Elections in the 2010s

2019 general election: Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk ^{[6] [7]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Lamont	25,747	48.4	-5.5
	SNP	Calum Kerr	20,599	38.8	+6.0
	Liberal Democrats	Jenny Marr	4,287	8.1	+3.4
	Labour	Ian Davidson	2,513	4.7	-3.9
Majority			5,148	9.6	-11.5
Turnout			53,146	71.3	-0.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	-5.7

2017 general election: Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk ^{[8] [9] [10] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Lamont	28,213	53.9	+17.9
	SNP	Calum Kerr	17,153	32.8	-3.8
	Labour Co-op	Ian Davidson	4,519	8.6	+3.7
	Liberal Democrats	Caroline Burgess	2,482	4.7	-14.0
Majority			11,060	21.1	N/A
Turnout			52,367	71.5	-2.7
	Conservative gain from SNP		Swing	+10.8

See also: Opinion polling in United Kingdom constituencies, 2010–15 § Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk

2015 general election: Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk ^{[12] [13]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Calum Kerr [14]	20,145	36.6	+27.4
	Conservative	John Lamont [15]	19,817	36.0	+2.2
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Moore [15]	10,294	18.7	−26.7
	Labour	Kenryck Jones [16]	2,700	4.9	−5.3
	UKIP	Peter Neilson [16]	1,316	2.4	+1.2
	Scottish Green	Pauline Stewart [17]	631	1.1	New
	Independent	Jesse Rae [16]	135	0.2	New
Majority			328	0.6	N/A
Turnout			55,038	74.2	+7.8
	SNP gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing	+27.1

Michael Moore

2010 general election: Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk ^{[18] [19]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Moore	22,230	45.4	+3.6
	Conservative	John Lamont	16,555	33.8	+5.0
	Labour	Ian Miller	5,003	10.2	−5.7
	SNP	Paul Wheelhouse	4,497	9.2	+0.6
	UKIP	Sherry Fowler	595	1.2	−0.1
	Scottish Jacobite	Chris Black	134	0.3	New
Majority			5,675	11.6	-1.4
Turnout			49,014	66.4	+3.1
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing	−0.7

Elections in the 2000s

2005 general election: Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk ^[20]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Moore	18,993	41.8	-5.0
	Conservative	John Lamont	13,092	28.8	+6.8
	Labour	Sam Held	7,206	15.9	-1.0
	SNP	Aileen Orr	3,885	8.6	-2.8
	Liberal	John Hein	916	2.0	+1.6
	Scottish Socialist	Graeme McIver	695	1.5	±0.0
	UKIP	Peter Neilson	601	1.3	+0.3
Majority			5,901	13.0	-11.8
Turnout			45,388	63.3
	Liberal Democrats win (new seat)

References

1. Hislop, Kevin. "UK Parliamentary elections results". www.scotborders.gov.uk.
2. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 2)
3. "John Lamont re-selected as Scottish Conservative candidate for the Borders". 24 March 2023.
4. https://scottishbordersgreens.org/our-candidates-for-uk-general-election/
5. https://twitter.com/DavidWilsonSNP/status/1705311946176647471 ^{[ bare URL ]}
6. "Candidates announced for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk County Constituency". Scottish Borders Council. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
7. "Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk parliamentary constituency - Election 2019" . Retrieved 13 December 2019.
8. "Tory MSP to quit Holyrood to stand for Westminster". BBC News. 25 April 2017.
9. Mackay, Colin (24 April 2017). "Former Pollock MP Ian Davidson going for Berwickshire Roxburgh & Selkirk". Twitter.
10. "General Election: SNP reselects 54 MPs". www.scotsman.com.
11. "John Lamont to stand in June's general election". Border Telegraph. 24 April 2017.
12. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
13. "UK Parliamentary General Election 2015 results - Elections - Scottish Borders Council". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2015. 9Aug15
14. Calum Kerr Archived 2015-04-28 at the Wayback Machine , Biography on SNP website, retrieved March 2015
15. "UK ELECTION RESULTS". electionresults.blogspot.co.uk.
16. "Candidates for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk in the 2015 UK General Election". yournextmp.com. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015.
17. "SCOTTISH GREENS CONFIRM BIGGEST SLATE OF WESTMINSTER CANDIDATES". scottishgreens.org.uk.
18. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
19. "BBC News - Election 2010 - Constituency - Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk". bbc.co.uk.
20. "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.

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