Paisley and Renfrewshire South (UK Parliament constituency)

Paisley and Renfrewshire South
County constituency for the House of Commons
120px Boundary of Paisley and Renfrewshire South in Scotland.
Current constituency
Created	2005
Member of parliament	Mhairi Black (SNP)
Created from	Paisley South
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	Scotland

Paisley and Renfrewshire South is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in Renfrewshire, Scotland to the southwest of Glasgow. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system of voting.

The seat was formed in 2005, and was traditionally a safe seat for the Labour Party, who previously had a majority of over 16,000 until the SNP gained the seat in the 2015 General Election. Its first MP was Douglas Alexander, who had been the constituency's MP since 2005 (and for the predecessor seat of Paisley South since 1997). Alexander was the Shadow Foreign Secretary, and has previously held cabinet posts such as Transport Secretary and Scottish Secretary (2006-07; joint), and International Development Secretary (2007-10).

The constituency takes in the southern half of the town of Paisley, as well as the smaller town of Johnstone. The constituency also covers large tracts of rural Renfrewshire, including a number of villages around the many lochs in the area.

Boundaries

This new seat takes the majority of Paisley South with minor additions from neighbouring constituencies. Population areas in this seat include Glenburn, Saucel and Hunterhill, Johnstone and Kilbarchan.

Members of Parliament

Douglas Alexander represented the constituency from its creation in 2005 to 2015; he had previously represented the former constituency of Paisley South since a 1997 by-election.

Election		Member	Party
	2005	Douglas Alexander	Labour
	2015	Mhairi Black	SNP

Election results

Elections in the 2010s

See also: Opinion polling in United Kingdom constituencies, 2010–15 § Paisley and Renfrewshire South

General Election 2015: Paisley and Renfrewshire South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Mhairi Black	23,548	50.9	+32.8
	Labour	Douglas Alexander	17,864	38.6	–21.0
	Conservative	Fraser Galloway	3,526	7.6	–2.3
	Liberal Democrat	Eileen McCartin	1,010	2.2	–7.3
	Scottish Socialist	Sandra Webster	278	0.6	–0.3
Majority			5,684	12.3
Turnout			46,226	75.4	+9.1
	SNP gain from Labour		Swing	+26.9

General Election 2010: Paisley and Renfrewshire South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Alexander	23,842	59.6	+7.0
	SNP	Andrew Doig	7,228	18.1	+0.5
	Conservative	Gordon McCaskill	3,979	9.9	+1.5
	Liberal Democrats	Ashay Ghai	3,812	9.5	–8.1
	Independent	Paul Mack	513	1.3
	Scottish Socialist	Jimmy Kerr	375	0.9	–1.1
	Independent	William Hendry	249	0.6
Majority			16,614	41.54
Turnout			39,998	65.36	+2.4
	Labour hold		Swing	+3.27

General Election 2005: Paisley and Renfrewshire South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Alexander	19,904	52.6	-4.4
	Liberal Democrats	Eileen McCartin	6,672	17.6	+8.0
	SNP	Andrew Doig	6,653	17.6	-3.3
	Conservative	Thomas Begg	3,188	8.4	0.0
	Scottish Socialist	Iain Hogg	789	2.1	-0.7
	Pride in Paisley Party	Gordon Matthew	381	1.0	+1.0
	Independent	Robert Rodgers	166	0.4	+0.4
	Socialist Labour	Howard Broadbent	107	0.3	+0.3
Majority			13,232	34.9
Turnout			37,860	62.9	+6.0
	Labour hold		Swing	-6.2

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "P" (part 1)