Dumfries and Galloway (UK Parliament constituency)

Dumfries and Galloway
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland
Major settlements	Dumfries, Stranraer
Current constituency
Created	2005
Member of Parliament	Alister Jack (Conservative)
Created from	Galloway and Upper Nithsdale and Dumfries

Dumfries and Galloway is a county constituency in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was first used in the 2005 general election, and replaced Galloway and Upper Nithsdale and part of Dumfries. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election however despite its name, It does not cover the whole of the Dumfries and Galloway Council Area

Constituency profile

Located in the southwest of Scotland, this is a large and rural seat with significant farming and forestry sectors, including the Galloway Forest Park. Dumfries is an economic hub for south Scotland and is also Dumfries and Galloway's largest town. The seat also contains many other small towns and villages such as Castle Douglas, Dalbeattie, Auchincairn, Kirkcudbright, Gatehouse of Fleet, Creetown, Glenluce, and Stranraer. Stranraer, which is the area's second-largest town, was formerly a port town where ferries to Northern Ireland departed from, but they have since moved to Cairnryan, 6 miles north of Stranraer. The seat has had a mixed history. Until 2005, it was held by the SNP before being won by the Labour Party who held the seat until 2015 when the SNP won the seat. They went on to lose the seat in 2017 to the Conservatives who have held the seat since.

Boundaries

Map of current boundaries

As created by the Fifth Review of the Boundary Commission for Scotland the constituency is one of six covering the Dumfries and Galloway council area, the Scottish Borders council area and the South Lanarkshire council area. The other five constituencies are: Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow, Lanark and Hamilton East and Rutherglen and Hamilton West.

The Dumfries and Galloway constituency covers part of the Dumfries and Galloway council area. The rest of the council area is covered by the Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale constituency, which also covers part of the Scottish Borders council area and part of the South Lanarkshire council area.

The Dumfries and Galloway constituency consists of the electoral wards of:

• In whole: Stranraer and The Rhins, Mid Galloway and Wigtown West, Dee and Glenkins, Castle Douglas and Crocketford, Abbey, North West Dumfries
• In part: Mid and Upper Nithsdale, Lochar, Nith

Politics

Dumfries and Galloway's predecessor seats, Galloway and Upper Nithsdale (1983–2005) and Galloway (1918–83), had been represented by Conservative MPs in all but two parliaments since 1931. Galloway and Upper Nithsdale was won by the Scottish National Party in 1997 ^[1] but became the only Scottish seat to return a Conservative MP at the 2001 general election. ^[1]

Boundary changes for the 2005 election saw the new seat have a very slim Labour majority over the Conservatives, and the SNP were in close third place. Russell Brown was the Labour candidate, who had been the MP for the neighbouring seat of Dumfriesshire since 1997, and Peter Duncan, the sitting MP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, stood as the Conservative candidate. Although the seat was the Conservatives' second target seat across Britain, ^[2] Labour increased its vote share and Russell Brown was elected as the constituency's MP. ^[3]

In 2010, Duncan attempted once again to become Dumfries and Galloway's MP. However the election produced a swing against the Conservatives in the seat, and it was held by Labour's Russell Brown with a majority of 7,449 votes. ^[4] The SNP's share of the vote in the constituency collapsed at the 2005 general election, and remained static in 2010. In 2015, the seat was won by the SNP's Richard Arkless with a 6,514 vote majority. The Conservative share of the vote stayed similar to the 2010 election, whereas Labour polled third, receiving 24.7% of the vote compared to 45.9% in 2010. ^{[5] [4]} In 2017, Alister Jack gained the seat for the Conservatives, ^[6] making him one of a dozen new Scottish Conservative MPs. ^[7] Jack held the seat in 2019 with a reduced majority despite increasing his vote share.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	2005	Russell Brown	Labour
	2015	Richard Arkless	SNP
	2017	Alister Jack	Conservative

Election results

Galloway constituencies election results

Elections in the 2020s

Next general election: Dumfries and Galloway

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Cooper [8]
	SNP	Tracey Little [9]
	Labour	James Wallace
	Liberal Democrats	Iain McDonald [10]
	Scottish Green	Laura Moodie [11]
Majority
Turnout
			Swing

Elections in the 2010s

2019 general election: Dumfries and Galloway ^{[12] [13]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alister Jack	22,678	44.1	+0.8
	SNP	Richard Arkless	20,873	40.6	+8.2
	Labour	Ted Thompson	4,745	9.2	–11.7
	Liberal Democrats	McNabb Laurie	3,133	6.1	+3.7
Majority			1,805	3.5	–7.6
Turnout			51,429	68.7	–0.9
	Conservative hold		Swing	–3.7

2017 general election: Dumfries and Galloway ^[14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alister Jack [15]	22,344	43.3	+13.4
	SNP	Richard Arkless	16,701	32.4	–9.0
	Labour	Daniel Goodare [16]	10,775	20.9	–3.8
	Liberal Democrats	Joan Mitchell	1,241	2.4	+0.7
	Independent	Yen Hongmei Jin [17]	538	1.0	New
Majority			5,643	10.9	N/A
Turnout			51,644	69.6	–5.6
	Conservative gain from SNP		Swing	+11.2

See also: Opinion polling in United Kingdom constituencies, 2010–15 § Dumfries and Galloway

2015 general election: Dumfries and Galloway ^{[18] [5]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Richard Arkless	23,440	41.4	+29.1
	Conservative	Finlay Carson	16,926	29.9	–1.7
	Labour	Russell Brown	13,982	24.7	–21.2
	UKIP	Geoffrey Siddall	1,301	2.3	+1.0
	Liberal Democrats	Andrew Metcalf	953	1.7	–7.1
Majority			6,514	11.5	N/A
Turnout			56,602	75.2	+5.2
	SNP gain from Labour		Swing	+25.2

2010 general election: Dumfries and Galloway ^{[19] [4]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Russell Brown	23,950	45.9	+4.8
	Conservative	Peter Duncan	16,501	31.6	–3.8
	SNP	Andrew Wood	6,419	12.3	+0.2
	Liberal Democrats	Richard Brodie	4,608	8.8	+0.4
	UKIP	Bill Wright	695	1.3	New
Majority			7,449	14.3	+8.6
Turnout			52,173	70.0	+1.5
	Labour hold		Swing	+4.3

Elections in the 2000s

2005 general election: Dumfries and Galloway ^{[20] [3]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Russell Brown	20,924	41.1	+8.7
	Conservative	Peter Duncan	18,002	35.4	+3.3
	SNP	Douglas Henderson	6,182	12.1	–13.0
	Liberal Democrats	Keith Legg	4,259	8.4	–0.5
	Scottish Green	John Schofield	745	1.5	New
	Scottish Socialist	John Dennis	497	1.0	–0.5
	Christian Vote	Mark Smith	282	0.6	New
Majority			2,922	5.7	+5.4
Turnout			50,891	68.5
	Labour win (new seat)

References

1. "Vote 2001: Results & Constituencies: Galloway & Upper Nithsdale". BBC News. Archived from the original on 15 October 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
2. "Election 2005: Result: Dumfries and Galloway". BBC News. 6 May 2005. Archived from the original on 12 October 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
3. Jones, Philip N. (5 May 2005). "General Election - Dumfries and Galloway County Constituency - May 2005". dumgal.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 9 May 2015. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
   • "Election 2005: Result: Dumfries and Galloway". 6 May 2005. Archived from the original on 12 October 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
4. Haswell, Alex (7 May 2010). "General Election - Dumfries and Galloway Constituency - May 2010". dumgal.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 9 May 2015. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
   • "Election 2010: Dumfries & Galloway". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2 November 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
5. Haswell, Alex (8 May 2015). "UK Parliamentary Elections Results 2015 for the Dumfries and Galloway County". dumgal.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 9 May 2015. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
   • "Election 2015: Dumfries & Galloway Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. Archived from the original on 9 May 2015. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
6. "Conservatives take Dumfries and Galloway seat from SNP". www.gallowaygazette.co.uk. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
7. "Scottish Tory MP has over £70,000 of shares in firm in world's 'worst' tax haven". HeraldScotland. 13 August 2017.
8. "John Cooper selected for Dumfries & Galloway". 31 July 2023.
9. "Less than a third of general election candidates selected so far are women". 5 November 2023.
10. https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-galloway-news/20231123/281784223836606 . Retrieved 25 February 2024– via PressReader.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
11. "Facebook post". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 25 February 2024.^{[ better source needed ]}
12. "UK Parliamentary General Election - December 2019" (PDF). Dumfries and Galloway Council. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
13. "Dumfries & Galloway parliamentary constituency - Election 2019" . Retrieved 13 December 2019.
14. "Dumfries and Galloway - 2017 Election Results - General Elections Online". electionresults.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 11 February 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
15. "Conservatives select local farmer to fight Galloway seat". www.gallowaygazette.co.uk.
16. "Scottish Labour chief named in new wave of parliamentary candidates - LabourList". 28 April 2017.
17. "South of Scotland constituency candidate lists revealed". BBC News. 12 May 2017.
18. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
19. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
20. "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.

External links

• The boundaries of the constituency, and its predecessors, can be viewed at Scottish Boundaries Commission's Map Browser Archived 27 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine .
• The boundaries of the constituency can also be viewed at the Ordnance Survey's Election Maps site.

55°04′08″N3°36′29″W / 55.069°N 3.608°W / 55.069; -3.608