Ochil and South Perthshire (UK Parliament constituency)

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.

Ochil and South Perthshire
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Ochil and South Perthshire in Scotland
Subdivisions of Scotland	Clackmannanshire/Perth and Kinross
Major settlements	Alloa, Auchterarder
Current constituency
Created	2005
Member of Parliament	John Nicolson (SNP)
Created from	Ochil and Perth

The constituency was created for the 2005 general election as a result of the Fifth Review of the Boundary Commission for Scotland.[1] It has been represented since 2019 by John Nicolson of the Scottish National Party (SNP).

Boundaries

Council areas grouped by the Fifth Review

Clackmannanshire and Perth and Kinross

The Clackmannanshire council area; and the Perth and Kinross council wards of Strathtay, Strathearn, Strathallan, Almond & Earn, and Kinross-shire.[2]

The constituency was created to cover the Clackmannanshire council area and a southern portion of the Perth and Kinross council area. Perth and North Perthshire was created, at the same time, to cover the rest of the Perth and Kinross council area.

Prior to the 2005 election, the council areas had been covered by the Angus, Ochil, Perth and North Tayside constituencies. The Perth constituency was entirely within the Perth and Kinross council area, the North Tayside constituency covered a northern portion of the Perth and Kinross council area and a northern portion of the Angus council area, the Angus constituency covered a small southeastern portion of the Perth and Kinross council area, a southern portion of the Angus council area, and northern portions of the Dundee City council area, and the Ochil constituency covered another southeastern portion of the Perth and Kinross council area, the whole of the Clackmannanshire council area and a southeastern portion of the Stirling council area.

Constituency profile and voting patterns

Constituency profile

The Ochil and South Perthshire constituency covers the rural south of the Perth and Kinross council area south of the River Tay, running down through the Ochil Hills into the more industrial Clackmannanshire council area to the south. It is an affluent constituency. Agriculture and tourism form an important part of the local economy in the north of the constituency in southern Perth and Kinross-shire, housing affluent resort towns such as Auchterarder, Crieff and Kinross. Clackmannanshire is better known for its light industry and breweries dotted along the course of the River Forth and its northern tributary streams.

Voting patterns

The Ochil and South Perthshire constituency was formed from elements of the old Ochil and Perth constituencies. Perth was traditionally a strong area of support for the Conservative Party until the party's wipeout in Scotland at the 1997 general election, from then onwards; the area usually voted SNP. Ochil covered the counties of Kinross-shire and Clackmannanshire, alongside some of the more industrialised parts of Stirlingshire, traditionally a SNP-Labour marginal. When Ochil and South Perthshire was first formed, it was thought of as a SNP-Labour marginal; however, the SNP failed to win the constituency when it was created in 2005, and at the subsequent general election in 2010. Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh gained the seat from Gordon Banks of the Labour Party in a landslide victory across Scotland at the 2015 general election as they won 56 of Scotland's 59 parliamentary seats. At the 2017 general election, Ahmed-Sheikh lost the constituency to Luke Graham of the Conservative Party, and in 2019, Graham lost the seat to John Nicolson, former SNP MP for East Dunbartonshire.

At the 2017 local election all wards in southern Perth and Kinross-shire voted Conservative by a good margin. The result in Clackmannanshire was mixed, with the SNP forming the largest party across the county as a whole but missing out to the Conservatives in Dollar to the north-east of the council area and missing out to Labour in northern Alloa. The Conservatives came first across Ochil and South Perthshire on the whole, with the SNP in second place.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member[3]	Party
	2005	Gordon Banks	Labour
	2015	Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh	Scottish National Party
	2017	Luke Graham	Conservative
	2019	John Nicolson	Scottish National Party

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General election 2019: Ochil and South Perthshire[4][5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	SNP	John Nicolson	26,882	46.5	+11.2
	Conservative	Luke Graham	22,384	38.7	-2.8
	Labour	Lorna Robertson	4,961	8.6	-11.4
	Liberal Democrats	Iliyan Stefanov	3,204	5.5	+2.3
	UKIP	Stuart Martin	382	0.7	New
Majority			4,498	7.8	N/A
Turnout			57,813	73.4	+2.8
	SNP gain from Conservative		Swing	+7.0

General election 2017: Ochil and South Perthshire[6][7][8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Luke Graham	22,469	41.5	20.8
	SNP	Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh	19,110	35.3	10.7
	Labour	Joanne Ross	10,847	20.0	8.4
	Liberal Democrats	Iliyan Stefanov	1,742	3.2	0.6
Majority			3,359	6.2	N/A
Turnout			54,168	70.6	4.2
	Conservative gain from SNP		Swing	15.8

General election 2015: Ochil and South Perthshire[9][10][11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	SNP	Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh	26,620	46.0	+18.4
	Labour	Gordon Banks	16,452	28.4	-9.5
	Conservative	Luke Graham	11,987	20.7	+0.2
	Liberal Democrats	Iliyan Stefanov	1,481	2.6	-8.8
	UKIP	Martin Gray	1,331	2.3	+0.9
Majority			10,168	17.6	N/A
Turnout			57,871	74.8	+7.6
	SNP gain from Labour		Swing	+13.9

General election 2010: Ochil and South Perthshire[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Gordon Banks	19,131	37.9	+6.5
	SNP	Annabelle Ewing	13,944	27.6	-2.3
	Conservative	Gerald Michaluk	10,342	20.5	-1.0
	Liberal Democrats	Graeme Littlejohn	5,754	11.4	-1.9
	UKIP	David Bushby	689	1.4	+0.8
	Scottish Green	Hilary Charles	609	1.2	-0.9
Majority			5,187	10.3	+8.8
Turnout			50,469	67.2	+1.2
	Labour hold		Swing	+4.4

General election 2005: Ochil and South Perthshire[13][14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Gordon Banks	14,645	31.4	−2.0
	SNP	Annabelle Ewing	13,957	29.9	−1.7
	Conservative	Elizabeth Smith	10,021	21.5	−0.6
	Liberal Democrats	Catherine Whittingham	6,218	13.3	+2.8
	Scottish Green	George Baxter	978	2.1	N/A
	Scottish Socialist	Iain Campbell	420	0.9	−0.9
	UKIP	David Bushby	275	0.6	N/A
	Free Scotland Party	Maitland Kelly	183	0.4	N/A
Majority			688	1.5
Turnout			46,697	66.0	+3.6
	Labour hold		Swing	−0.2

Notes and references

1. "Boundary Commission for Scotland website". Archived from the original on 2007-09-21.
2. "Seat Details". www.electoralcalculus.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2018-06-27. Retrieved 2017-06-24.
3. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "O"
4. "UK Parliamentary election: Ochil and South Perthshire constituency". Clackmannanshire Council. Clackmannanshire Council. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
5. "Ochil & South Perthshire parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". Retrieved 2019-12-15.
6. "General Election: SNP reselects 54 MPs". www.scotsman.com.
7. "General Election 2017 Candidates". www.scottishlabour.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2017-05-08. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
8. "Lee Scott back for Ilford North. Vicky Ford in final Chelmsford three. Tatton finalists named. The latest candidate selections and shortlists. - Conservative Home".
9. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
10. Council, Depute Returning Officer, Clackmannanshire. "Westminster Parliament election - 2015-05-07". www.clacks.gov.uk.
11. "UK Polling Report". ukpollingreport.co.uk.
12. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
13. "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
14. "Election 2005; Result: Ochil and South Perthshire". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 2005-05-06. Retrieved 2008-07-26.