Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (UK Parliament constituency)
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| Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey County constituency |
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| Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey shown within Scotland | |
| Created: | 2005 |
| MP: | Danny Alexander |
| Party: | Liberal Democrats |
| Type: | House of Commons |
| Council areas: | Highland |
| EP constituency: | Scotland |
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster). It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
The constituency covers a south-eastern portion of the Highland council area.
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[edit] Boundaries
The constituency was created in 2005 by merging an area from Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber with an area from Ross, Skye and Inverness West. The rest of Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber was merged with most of the rest of Ross, Skye and Inverness West to form Ross, Skye and Lochaber. A small area of Ross, Skye and Inverness West was merged into Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.
For representation in the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) the area of the Westminster constituency is divided between Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber (the Holyrood constituency) and Ross, Skye and Inverness West (the Holyrood constituency).
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey has the dubious distinction of having the longest name of any UK constituency.
[edit] Local government area
The Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency is one of three Westmister constituencies covering the Highland council area, the other two being Ross, Skye and Lochaber and Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross. Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey covers a south-eastern portion of the council area, with Ross, Skye and Lochaber to its north and west, and Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross further north.
When the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency was created, in 2005, the Highland Council had eight management areas, Badenoch and Strathspey, Caithness, Inverness, Lochaber, Nairn, Ross and Cromarty, Skye and Lochalsh and Sutherland, and each was represented by an area committee. The management area and area committee structure dated from 1996, when the council itself was creaated. The management areas had the boundaries of the districts of the Highland region, as abolished in 1996. In 1999 however, ward boundaries were redrawn but management areas were unaltered, and therefore area committees ceased to represent exactly the areas for which they were named and for which they took decisions.
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| Highland council area Shown as one of the council areas of Scotland |
When created in 2005, the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency covered 31 out of the 80 wards of the council area: 22 wards (all except Beauly and Strathglass) of the Inverness area committee, all four wards of the Nairn area committee and all five wards of the Badenoch and Stathspey area committee.
The City of Inverness, for which letters patent were granted in 2001, may be supposed to lie within the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency, but this city lacks clearly defined boundaries. The Highland Council management area of Inverness, as defined 1996 to 2007, included the former burgh of Inverness, as abolished in 1975, and the urban area centred on the burgh, and these do lie within the constituency. The management area included also a large rural area. As of this year, 2007, the council has a city management area consisting of seven of the nine wards of its Inverness, Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey corporate management area. The boundaries of his city management are similar to those of the older management area.
The most recent general election of the Highland Council was this year, 2007, and its current political composition is as follows:
- 34 independent councillors
- 21 Liberal Democrat councillors
- 17 Scottish National Party councillors
- 7 Labour Party councillors
- 1 non-aligned independent councillor
The current convener of the council is an independent councillor and the current vice-convener is a Scottish National Party councillor.[1]
[edit] Members of Parliament
- Danny Alexander, Liberal Democrats (2005–present)
[edit] Election results
| Confirmed candidates for the next UK general election [2] | |||||
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| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Liberal Democrat | Danny Alexander | ||||
| Conservative | Jim Ferguson | ||||
| Scottish National Party | John Finnie | ||||
- Note: The constituency was new in 2005 and +/- percentages are notional.
| General Election 2005: Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey | |||||
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| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Liberal Democrat | Danny Alexander | 17,830 | 40.3 | +10.8 | |
| Labour | David Stewart | 13,682 | 30.9 | -1.3 | |
| Scottish National Party | David Thompson | 5,992 | 13.5 | -9.5 | |
| Conservative | Robert Rowantree | 4,579 | 10.3 | -2.0 | |
| Scottish Green | Donnie MacLeod | 1,065 | 2.4 | N/A | |
| Publican Party | Donald Lawson | 678 | 1.5 | N/A | |
| Scottish Socialist | George MacDonald | 429 | 1.0 | -1 | |
| Majority | 4,148 | 9.4 | |||
| Turnout | 44,255 | 63.6 | +0.5 | ||
| Liberal Democrat gain from Labour | Swing | +6.0 | |||
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Top Two Elected At The Highland Council, Highland Council news release
- ^ Inverness Nairn Badenoch and Strathspey, UKPollingReport
