Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (UK Parliament constituency)

Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath in Scotland
Major settlements	Burntisland, Cowdenbeath, Dalgety Bay, Kinghorn, Kirkcaldy, Lochgelly
Current constituency
Created	2005
Member of Parliament	Neale Hanvey (Alba Party)
Created from	Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline East

Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath is a county constituency representing the areas around the towns of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, in Fife, Scotland, in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is currently represented by Alba Party politician Neale Hanvey.

It was previously represented by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2005 until 2015, who had been MP for the Dunfermline East constituency from 1983-2005 until boundary changes. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007 and as UK Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010.

Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat will be subject to boundary changes and will formally be renamed Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy, to be first contested at the next general election. ^[1]

Boundaries

Map of boundaries 2005-2024

Map of boundaries from 2024

The Fife Council wards of Aberdour and Burntisland West; Auchtertool and Burntisland East; Ballingry and Lochore; Bennochy and Valley; Cowdenbeath Central; Crosshill and Lochgelly North; Dalgety Bay East; Dalgety Bay West and Hillend; Dunnikier; Dysart and Gallatown; Glebe Park, Pathhead and Sinclairtown; Hayfield and Balsusney; Kelty; Kinghorn and Invertiel; Linktown and Kirkcaldy Central; Lumphinnans and Lochgelly South; Oakfield and Cowdenbeath North; Raith and Longbraes; Smeaton and Overton; Templehall East; and Templehall West.

The constituency is bounded by Ochil and South Perthshire to the north, Dunfermline and West Fife to the west and Glenrothes to the east.

Along with Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, the towns of Burntisland, Dalgety Bay, Dysart, Kelty, and Lochgelly and the villages of Aberdour, Auchtertool, Ballingry, Crosshill, Glencraig, Kinghorn, Lochore and Lumphinnans make up the constituency. ^[2]

In 2023 new constituency boundaries for the next general election were proposed by 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies. The review recommended moderate changes to the constituency.

Location of the constituency after boundaries review

Members of Parliament

The first Member of Parliament after the seat's creation in 2005, was the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown; who had previously represented Dunfermline East from 1983 to 2005, and later succeeded Tony Blair as Prime Minister in 2007. At the general election of 2010, Brown was re-elected as an MP, but was defeated as Prime Minister, and soon resigned as Leader of the Labour Party. He announced that he would continue to serve as an Opposition backbencher, ^[3] and did not retire from the Commons until the 2015 general election, which he did not contest. On that occasion, the SNP won parliamentary representation in the area for the first time, in line with the party's landslide victory throughout Scotland at that election. In 2017, Labour regained the seat from the SNP, with Lesley Laird winning over the SNP incumbent Roger Mullin by 259 votes. ^{[4] [5]} Laird was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland less than a week later on 14 June 2017. ^[6]

In 2019, Neale Hanvey unseated Laird with a majority of 1,243 votes. Hanvey was suspended from the SNP before the election for use of anti-Semitic language in social media posts. Although Hanvey was suspended from the SNP, he was still listed as such on the ballot and his victory is recorded as an SNP gain from Labour. ^[5] It is the only known time in which a candidate has won a seat and sat as an independent following a suspension from their party. ^[4] He was later re-admitted to the party in June 2020. ^[7] Hanvey defected from the SNP to join the new Alba Party in late March 2021, becoming Alba's second MP after Kenny MacAskill of East Lothian. ^[8]

Member	Party		Years	Parliament	Electoral history
Constituency created from Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline East
Gordon Brown		Labour	5 May 2005 – 30 March 2015	54th 55th	Moved from Dunfermline East and re-elected in 2005. Re-elected in 2010. Retired.
Roger Mullin		SNP	27 May 2015 – 3 May 2017	56th	Elected in 2015. Lost re-election.
Lesley Laird		Labour	21 June 2017 – 6 November 2019	57th	Elected in 2017. Lost re-election.
Neale Hanvey		Independent	17 December 2019 – 27 May 2020	58th	Elected in 2019.
		SNP	27 May 2020 – 28 March 2021
		Alba	28 March 2021 – present

Election results

Elections in the 2010s

General election 2019: Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath ^{[9] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Neale Hanvey 1	16,568	35.2	−1.1
	Labour	Lesley Laird	15,325	32.6	−4.2
	Conservative	Kathleen Leslie	9,449	20.1	−3.2
	Liberal Democrats	Gillian Cole-Hamilton	2,903	6.2	+3.8
	Scottish Green	Scott Rutherford	1,628	3.5	New
	Brexit Party	Mitch William	1,132	2.4	New
Majority			1,243	2.6	N/A
Turnout			47,005	64.5	+1.0
	SNP gain from Labour		Swing	+1.6

¹After nominations for the 2019 general election closed, the Scottish National Party suspended Neale Hanvey and withdrew all support for his campaign on 28 November 2019 due to allegations of antisemitism. ^[11]

General election 2017: Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Lesley Laird	17,016	36.8	+3.4
	SNP	Roger Mullin	16,757	36.3	−15.9
	Conservative	Dave Dempsey	10,762	23.3	+13.4
	Liberal Democrats	Malcolm Wood	1,118	2.4	+0.1
	UKIP	David Coburn	540	1.2	−1.1
Majority			259	0.5	N/A
Turnout			46,193	63.5	−6.1
	Labour gain from SNP		Swing	+9.8

See also: Opinion polling in United Kingdom constituencies, 2010–15 § Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath

General election 2015: Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath ^{[12] [13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Roger Mullin	27,628	52.2	+37.9
	Labour Co-op	Kenny Selbie	17,654	33.4	−31.1
	Conservative	Dave Dempsey	5,223	9.9	+0.6
	UKIP	Jack Neill	1,237	2.3	+0.6
	Liberal Democrats	Callum Leslie	1,150	2.3	−7.0
Majority			9,974	18.8	N/A
Turnout			52,892	69.6	+7.4
	SNP gain from Labour		Swing	+34.6

General election 2010: Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath ^{[15] [13]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gordon Brown	29,559	64.5	+6.4
	SNP	Douglas Chapman	6,550	14.3	−0.2
	Liberal Democrats	John Mainland	4,269	9.3	−3.7
	Conservative	Lindsay Paterson	4,258	9.3	−1.0
	UKIP	Peter Adams	760	1.7	+0.5
	Independent	Susan Archibald	184	0.4	New
	Independent	Donald MacLaren	165	0.4	New
	Land Party	Derek Jackson	57	0.1	New
Majority			23,009	50.2	+6.6
Turnout			45,802	62.2	+3.8
	Labour hold		Swing	+3.3

Elections in the 2000s

General election 2005: Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath ^[16]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gordon Brown	24,278	58.1	−0.4
	SNP	Alan Bath	6,062	14.5	−4.1
	Liberal Democrats	Alex Cole-Hamilton	5,450	13.0	+3.8
	Conservative	Stuart Randall	4,308	10.3	−0.3
	Scottish Socialist	Steve West	666	1.6	−1.1
	UKIP	Peter Adams	516	1.2	+0.8
	Scottish Senior Citizens	James Parker	425	1.0
	Independent	Elizabeth Kwantes	47	0.1
	Independent	Pat Sargent	44	0.1
Majority			18,216	43.6	+3.7
Turnout			41,796	58.4
	Labour win (new seat)

See also

• Politics of Scotland
• List of current MPs for Scottish constituencies

References

1. Boundary Commission Scotland 2023 Review Report
2. "Gordon Brown Constituency Website". Archived from the original on 20 May 2010. Retrieved 26 June 2007.
3. "Brown to remain as backbench MP", BBC News, 13 May 2010
4. "Axed SNP candidate elected to Westminster". BBC News. 13 December 2019. Archived from the original on 16 December 2019. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
5. "Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". BBC News. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
6. "Notes on the Reshuffle". New Socialist. 18 June 2017. Archived from the original on 26 January 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
7. Smith, Craig (1 June 2020). "Fife MP 'welcomed back' into SNP after six-month suspension". The Courier. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
8. Matthews, James [@jamesmatthewsky] (28 March 2021). "NEW: Neale Hanvey becomes second Westminster MP to defect from SNP to Alex Salmond's Alba Party. Follows Kenny MacAskill. @SkyNews" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 28 March 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021– via Twitter.
9. "General Election 12 December 2019". Fife Council. Fife Council. Archived from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
10. "Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath parliamentary constituency - Election 2019" . Retrieved 15 December 2019.
11. "SNP drop candidate over claims of anti-Semitism". BBC News . 28 November 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
12. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
13. Fife Council, Elections (7 July 2014). "Elections - The Scottish Independence Referendum Results 2014". www.fifedirect.org.uk.
14. "Candidates to be MP (PPCs) for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath in the UK 2015 general election". YourNextMP. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
15. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
16. "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sedgefield	Constituency represented by the prime minister 2007–2010	Succeeded by Witney
Preceded by Dunfermline East	Constituency represented by the chancellor of the Exchequer 2005–2007	Succeeded by Edinburgh South West

56°05′57″N3°16′25″W / 56.09917°N 3.27361°W / 56.09917; -3.27361