Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber (UK Parliament constituency)

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Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber County constituency
Created:	1997
Abolished:	2005
Type:	House of Commons
Members:	One

Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2005. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

There is also an Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber constituency of the Scottish Parliament, which was created with the same boundaries in 1999.

[edit] Boundaries

The constituency was created as one of three to cover the Highland council area. The other two were Ross, Skye and Inverness West and Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.

The Highland area had become a unitary council area in 1996, under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994, and new constituency boundaries divided the areas of some of the former districts of the Highland region. The Highland area had been covered, previously, by the three constituencies of Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber, Ross, Cromarty and Skye and Caithness and Sutherland.

In 2005, constituency boundaries were redrawn again, and the Highland area was divided between three new constituencies (of which one carried forward the name of an older constituency): Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, Ross, Skye and Lochaber and Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.

[edit] Member of Parliament

Throughout the 1997 to 2005 period, the constituency was represented by a Labour Party MP: David John Stewart.

[edit] Election results

General Election 2001: Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Stewart	15,605	36.8	+2.9
	Scottish National Party	Angus MacNeil	10,889	25.6	−3.4
	Liberal Democrat	Patsy Kenton	9,420	22.2	+4.7
	Conservative	Richard Jenkins	5,653	13.3	−4.2
	Scottish Socialist	Steve Arnott	894	2.0	N/A
Majority			4,716	11.1	+6.2
Turnout				63.9	−8.2
	Labour hold		Swing	3.2

General Election 1997: Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Stewart	16,187	33.9	N/A
	Scottish National Party	Fergus Ewing	13,848	29.0	N/A
	Liberal Democrat	Stephen Gallagher	8,364	17.5	N/A
	Conservative	Mary Scanlon	8,355	17.5	N/A
	Referendum Party	Winnona Wall	436	0.9	N/A
	Scottish Green	Murray Falconer	354	0.7	N/A
	Independent	Daniel Hart	224	0.5	N/A
Majority			2,339	4.9	N/A
Turnout				72.1	N/A