Paisley South (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Paisley South (UK Parliament constituency).

Paisley South
Former county constituency for the Scottish Parliament
Paisley South shown within the West of Scotland electoral region and the region shown within Scotland
Former constituency
Created	1999
Abolished	2011
Council area	Renfrewshire
Replaced by	Paisley Renfrewshire South

Paisley South was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament covering part of the council area of Renfrewshire. It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. For the 2011 Scottish Parliament election the town of Paisley was split between two new constituencies. The new constituency of Paisley largely replaced both Paisley North and Paisley South; some areas covered by Paisley South were also transferred to the new constituency of Renfrewshire South.

Electoral region

See also West of Scotland (Scottish Parliament electoral region)

Under the additional-member electoral system used for elections to the Scottish Parliament, Paisley South was also one of nine constituencies in the West Scotland electoral region, which elected seven additional members, in addition to the nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole. Prior to the first periodic review of Scottish Parliament boundaries in 2011, the other eight constituencies of the West of Scotland region were: Dumbarton, Clydebank and Milngavie, Cunninghame North, Eastwood, Greenock and Inverclyde, Paisley North, Strathkelvin and Bearsden and West Renfrewshire.

The region covered the West Dunbartonshire council area, the East Renfrewshire council area, the Inverclyde council area, most of the Renfrewshire council area, most of the East Dunbartonshire council area, part of the Argyll and Bute council area and part of the North Ayrshire council area.

Constituency boundaries

The Paisley South constituency was created for the first election to the Scottish Parliament in 1999, using the name and boundaries of the existing Paisley South constituency of the UK House of Commons. Ahead of the 2005 United Kingdom general election, House of Commons constituencies were altered, whilst the existing Scottish Parliament constituencies were retained. ^[1]

Paisley South lay entirely within the Renfrewshire council area. The rest of the Renfrewshire area was covered by Paisley North, and West Renfrewshire. The West Renfrewshire constituency also covered a portion of the Inverclyde council area.

Member of the Scottish Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1999	Hugh Henry	Labour
	2011	constituency abolished: replaced by Paisley

Election results

2007 Scottish Parliament election: Paisley South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Hugh Henry	12,123	47.5	+6.7
	SNP	Fiona McLeod	7,893	30.9	−0.1
	Liberal Democrats	Eileen McCartin	3,434	13.4	−0.7
	Conservative	Tom Begg	2,077	8.1	+1.0
Majority			4,230	16.6	+6.8
Turnout			25,527	52.7	+2.6
	Labour hold		Swing	+3.4

2003 Scottish Parliament election: Paisley South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Hugh Henry	10,190	40.8	−4.5
	SNP	Bill Martin	7,737	31.0	+0.3
	Liberal Democrats	Eileen McCartin	3,517	14.1	+4.4
	Conservative	Mark Jones	1,775	7.1	−0.9
	Scottish Socialist	Frances Curran	1,765	7.1	New
Majority			2,453	9.8	−4.8
Turnout			24,984	50.1	−7.0
	Labour hold		Swing

1999 Scottish Parliament election: Paisley South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Hugh Henry	13,899	45.3	N/A
	SNP	Bill Martin	9,404	30.7	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Stuart Callison	2,974	9.7	N/A
	Conservative	Sheila Laidlaw	2,433	7.9	N/A
	Independent	Paul Mack	1,273	4.2	N/A
	Socialist Workers	Jackie Forrest	673	2.2	N/A
Majority			4,495	14.6	N/A
Turnout			30,656	57.1	N/A
	Labour win (new seat)

Notes and references

1. See The 5th Periodical Report of the Boundary Commission for Scotland Archived 21 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine