Dunfermline and West Fife | |
---|---|
County constituency for the House of Commons | |
Major settlements | Dunfermline, Inverkeithing, North Queensferry, Rosyth |
Current constituency | |
Created | 2005 |
Member of Parliament | Douglas Chapman (SNP) |
Created from | Dunfermline West and Dunfermline East |
Dunfermline and West Fife is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created for the 2005 general election from all of the old Dunfermline West and parts of the old Dunfermline East constituencies. The current MP is Douglas Chapman of the Scottish National Party (SNP).
The Dunfermline and West Fife by-election was held in early 2006, due to the death of the sitting MP, Rachel Squire. Willie Rennie of the Liberal Democrats was the surprise winner, by some 1,800 votes, in what was seen as a safe Labour seat. [1] However, he lost the seat to Labour's Thomas Docherty at the 2010 general election. Chapman then won the seat in the SNP's Scottish landslide in the 2015 general election. [2]
Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat will be subject to boundary changes which will include the small town of Dollar in Clackmannanshire. As a consequence, it will be renamed Dunfermline and Dollar , to be first contested at the next general election. [3]
This constituency was formed in 2005 from all of the old Dunfermline West and parts of the old Dunfermline East constituencies.
Rosyth and Inverkeithing in the southeast are the only large population centres on the coast. To the north and west of Dunfermline is more rugged and robust Fife countryside. The whole seat is up against the Firth of Forth.
Rachel Squire (Labour) was the MP for Dunfermline West constituency from 1992 until the major revision of the composition of Scottish parliamentary constituencies for the 2005 general election. Gordon Brown was MP for the neighbouring Dunfermline East constituency from which some territory was given to Dunfermline and West Fife.
Squire won the new seat in the 2005 general election and held it until her death on 5 January 2006. The subsequent by-election was held on 9 February 2006, which Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie won in a shock defeat for Labour. The Liberal Democrats also gained the Dunfermline West Scottish Parliamentary constituency from Labour in the 2007 Holyrood Parliament elections.
In the 2010 general election, the Labour candidate Thomas Docherty won the seat back. In the 2015 general election the seat was won by the SNP's Douglas Chapman.
Election | Member [4] | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
2005 | Rachel Squire | Labour | |
2006 by-election | Willie Rennie | Liberal Democrat | |
2010 | Thomas Docherty | Labour | |
2015 | Douglas Chapman | SNP |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
SNP | Douglas Chapman | 23,727 | 44.4 | +8.9 | |
Labour Co-op | Cara Hilton | 13,028 | 24.4 | -9.5 | |
Conservative | Moira Benny | 11,207 | 21.0 | -3.7 | |
Liberal Democrats | Rebecca Bell | 4,262 | 8.0 | +2.1 | |
Scottish Green | Mags Hall | 1,258 | 2.4 | New | |
Majority | 10,699 | 20.0 | +18.4 | ||
Turnout | 53,482 | 69.8 | +2.4 | ||
SNP hold | Swing | +9.2 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
SNP | Douglas Chapman | 18,121 | 35.5 | -14.8 | |
Labour Co-op | Cara Hilton | 17,277 | 33.9 | +2.2 | |
Conservative | Belinda Hacking | 12,593 | 24.7 | +12.8 | |
Liberal Democrats | James Calder | 3,019 | 5.9 | +1.9 | |
Majority | 844 | 1.6 | -17.0 | ||
Turnout | 51,010 | 67.4 | -4.2 | ||
SNP hold | Swing | -8.4 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
SNP | Douglas Chapman | 28,096 | 50.3 | +39.7 | |
Labour | Thomas Docherty | 17,744 | 31.7 | -14.6 | |
Conservative | James Reekie | 6,623 | 11.9 | +5.1 | |
Liberal Democrats | Gillian Cole-Hamilton [12] | 2,232 | 4.0 | -31.1 | |
Scottish Green | Lewis Campbell [13] | 1,195 | 2.1 | New | |
Majority | 10,352 | 18.6 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 55,890 | 71.6 | +5.2 | ||
SNP gain from Labour | Swing | +27.1 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Thomas Docherty | 22,639 | 46.3 | -1.1 | |
Liberal Democrats | Willie Rennie | 17,169 | 35.1 | +14.9 | |
SNP | Joe McCall | 5,201 | 10.6 | -8.3 | |
Conservative | Belinda Hacking | 3,305 | 6.8 | -3.5 | |
UKIP | Otto Inglis | 633 | 1.3 | -0.2 | |
Majority | 5,470 | 11.2 | -16.0 | ||
Turnout | 48,947 | 66.4 | +6.5 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | ||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal Democrats | Willie Rennie | 12,391 | 35.8 | +15.6 | |
Labour | Catherine Stihler | 10,591 | 30.6 | -16.8 | |
SNP | Douglas Chapman | 7,261 | 21.0 | +2.1 | |
Conservative | Carrie Ruxton | 2,702 | 7.8 | -2.5 | |
Scottish Socialist | John McAllion | 537 | 1.6 | 0.0 | |
Scottish Christian | George Hargreaves | 411 | 1.2 | New | |
Abolish Forth Bridge Tolls Party | Tom Minogue | 374 | 1.1 | New | |
UKIP | Ian Borland | 208 | 0.6 | -0.9 | |
Common Good | Dick Rodgers | 103 | 0.3 | New | |
Majority | 1,800 | 5.2 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 34,578 | 47.9 | -12.0 | ||
Liberal Democrats gain from Labour | Swing | +16.5 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Rachel Squire | 20,111 | 47.4 | -7.1 | |
Liberal Democrats | David Herbert | 8,549 | 20.2 | +5.9 | |
SNP | Douglas Chapman | 8,026 | 18.9 | +1.1 | |
Conservative | Roger Smillie | 4,376 | 10.3 | +0.6 | |
Scottish Socialist | Susan Archibald | 689 | 1.6 | -0.8 | |
UKIP | Ian Borland | 643 | 1.5 | +0.1 | |
Majority | 11,562 | 27.2 | -13.0 | ||
Turnout | 42,394 | 59.9 | +2.3 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | -6.5 | |||
Rachel Anne Squire was a British Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dunfermline West in Scotland from 1992 general election to 2005, and then for Dunfermline and West Fife from 2005 until her death after a long series of illnesses.
Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale is a constituency of the House of Commons, located in the South of Scotland, within the Dumfries and Galloway, South Lanarkshire and Scottish Borders council areas. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the First-past-the-post system of voting. It is currently represented in Westminster by the former Secretary of State for Scotland, David Mundell, a Conservative, who has been the MP since 2005.
Ochil and South Perthshire is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election.
Dundee West is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post voting system.
North East Fife is a county constituency in Fife, Scotland, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Wendy Chamberlain of the Liberal Democrats since the 2019 general election.
Gordon is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster), which elects one member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The constituency first returned a member in the 1983 general election, but has undergone boundary changes since that date.
North Ayrshire and Arran is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in the south-west of Scotland within the North Ayrshire council area. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post voting system of voting.
Glenrothes is a constituency in Scotland represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005.
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.
Dunfermline East was a burgh constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post voting system.
The Dunfermline and West Fife by-election was held on 9 February 2006, following the death of the sitting Labour MP Rachel Squire, on 6 January. The by-election was the first seat to change hands in the 2005 Parliament, when Willie Rennie won the seat for the Liberal Democrats, gaining it from Labour by 1,800 votes. The BBC reported a swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats of 16.24%.
William Cowan Rennie is a Scottish politician who served as the Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats from 2011 to 2021. He has served as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for North East Fife since 2016, and previously as a list MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife and as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dunfermline and West Fife.
Thomas Docherty is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dunfermline and West Fife from 2010 until 2015.
A general election was held in the United Kingdom on 6 May 2010 and all 59 seats in Scotland were contested. The election result in Scotland was unusual in that there wasn't any change of seats from the 2005 general election, although the Labour Party took back two seats that it had lost in by-elections. This was the most recent general election at which the Labour Party won a majority of seats and plurality of votes in Scotland.
Cara Laura Hilton is a Scottish Labour politician, who was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Dunfermline from 2013 to 2016.
Douglas Chapman is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dunfermline and West Fife since the 2015 general election. He is the SNP's Small Business, Enterprise and Innovation spokesperson.
Elections to Fife Council were held on 4 May 2017, the same day as the other Scottish local government elections. The election used the 22 wards created as a result of the Local Government Commission for Scotland's 5th review which was published in September 2016, with each ward electing three or four councillors using the single transferable vote system form of proportional representation, with 75 councillors elected; a decrease of three seats from 2012 as one ward, The Lochs, was abolished.
A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 8 June 2017; all 59 seats in Scotland were contested under the first-past-the-post electoral system.
Elections to Fife Council took place on 5 May 2022 on the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections. As with other Scottish council elections, it was held using single transferable vote (STV) – a form of proportional representation – in which multiple candidates are elected in each ward and voters rank candidates in order of preference.
Rosyth is one of the 22 wards used to elect members of the Fife council. It elects three Councillors.