Paisley North (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Paisley North (UK Parliament constituency).

Paisley North was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. Also, however, it was one of nine constituencies in the West of Scotland electoral region, which elected seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

Paisley North
Former county constituency for the Scottish Parliament
Paisley North shown within the West of Scotland electoral region and the region shown within Scotland
Former constituency
Created	1999
Abolished	2011
Council area	Renfrewshire

From the Scottish Parliament election, 2011, the town of Paisley was split between two new constituencies. Paisley largely replaced Paisley North and Paisley South. Renfrewshire North and West took some parts of the north west of Paisley.

Electoral region

See also: West of Scotland (Scottish Parliament electoral region)

Before the 2011 Boundary Review, the other eight constituencies of the West of Scotland region were; Dumbarton, Clydebank and Milngavie, Cunninghame North, Eastwood, Greenock and Inverclyde, Paisley South, Strathkelvin and Bearsden and West Renfrewshire

The region covers the West Dunbartonshire council area, the East Renfrewshire council area, the Inverclyde council area, most of the Renfrewshire council area, most of the East Dunbartonshire council area, part of the Argyll and Bute council area and part of the North Ayrshire council area.

Constituency boundaries

The Paisley North constituency was created at the same time as the Scottish Parliament, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of an existing Westminster constituency. In 2005, however, the Westminster (House of Commons) constituency was abolished in favour of new constituencies.^[1]

Council areas

The Holyrood constituency was within the Renfrewshire council area. The rest of the Renfrewshire area was covered by the Paisley South, West Renfrewshire and Glasgow Govan constituencies.

The West Renfrewshire constituency also covered a portion of the Inverclyde council area, and the Glasgow Govan constituency also covered a portion of the Glasgow City council area.

Glasgow Govan was in the Glasgow electoral region.

Member of the Scottish Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1999	Wendy Alexander	Labour
	2011	Constituency abolished: replaced by Paisley

Election results

2007 Scottish Parliament election: Paisley North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Wendy Alexander	12,111	52.2	+4.3
	SNP	Andrew Doig	6,998	30.2	+1.7
	Conservative	Malcolm MacAskill	1,721	7.4	−1.0
	Liberal Democrats	Angela McGarrigle	1,570	6.8	−0.9
	Scottish Socialist	Iain Hogg	525	2.3	−5.3
	Independent	John Plott	281	1.2	New
Majority			5,113	22.0	+2.6
Turnout			23,206	53.4	+4.0
	Labour hold		Swing	+1.3

2003 Scottish Parliament election: Paisley North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Wendy Alexander	10,631	47.9	−0.7
	SNP	George Adam	6,321	28.5	−3.5
	Conservative	Allison Cook	1,871	8.4	+0.3
	Liberal Democrats	Brian O'Malley	2,338	7.7	±0.0
	Scottish Socialist	Sean Hurl	1,678	7.6	+4.0
Majority			4,310	19.4	+2.8
Turnout			22,206	49.4	−7.3
	Labour hold		Swing

1999 Scottish Parliament election: Paisley North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Wendy Alexander	13,492	48.6	N/A
	SNP	Ian MacKay	8,876	32.0	N/A
	Conservative	Peter Ramsay	2,242	8.1	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Tamsin Mayberry	2,133	7.7	N/A
	Scottish Socialist	Fiona Macdonald	1,007	3.6	N/A
Majority			4,616	16.6	N/A
Turnout			27,750	56.7	N/A
	Labour win (new seat)

Notes and references

1. See The 5th Periodical Report of the Boundary Commission for Scotland Archived 21 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine