Gordon | |
---|---|
County constituency for the House of Commons | |
Subdivisions of Scotland | Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City |
Major settlements | Dyce, Huntly, Ellon, Inverurie |
Current constituency | |
Created | 1983 |
Member of Parliament | Richard Thomson (SNP) |
Created from | East Aberdeenshire and West Aberdeenshire [1] |
Replaced by | Gordon and Buchan |
Gordon is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster), which elects one member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The constituency was first contested at the 1983 UK general election; but has undergone boundary changes since then.
The constituency has been represented since 2019 by Richard Thomson of the Scottish National Party.
Previously, the constituency was represented by Colin Clark of the Scottish Conservatives, who gained the seat from former Scottish First Minister and former SNP leader Alex Salmond at the 2017 snap election- which overall saw the best Conservative Party result in Scotland for 34 years; with 13 MPs returned.
Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat will be subject to boundary changes, losing the parts in the Aberdeen City council area, partly offset by the addition of part of the (to be abolished) constituency of Banff and Buchan. As a consequence, it will be renamed Gordon and Buchan, to be first contested at the 2024 general election. [2]
1983–1997: Gordon District, and the City of Aberdeen District electoral divisions of East Don and West Don.
1997–2005: The Gordon District electoral divisions of East Gordon, Formartine, Garioch, Inverurie, Kintore and Newmachar, and West Gordon, the Banff and Buchan District electoral division of Lower Deveron and Upper Ythan, and the Moray District electoral division of Keith-Strathisla.
2005–2024: The Aberdeenshire Council wards of Tarves, Ythan, Ellon Town, Logie Buchan, Meldrum, Udny-Slains, Belhelvie, Insch, Chapel and Gadie, Inverurie North, Inverurie Central, Inverurie South and Port Elphinstone, Kintore and Keithhall, Newmachar and Fintray, Huntly West, Huntly East, and Strathbogie, and the Aberdeen City Council wards of Pitmedden, Bankhead/Stoneywood, Danestone, Jesmond, Oldmachar, and Bridge of Don.
New boundaries were used for the 2005 general election. Prior to that election the constituency covered a central portion of the Aberdeenshire council area and a small eastern portion of the Moray council area. As a result of the 2005 boundary changes, in accordance with the Fifth Periodical Report of the Boundary Commission for Scotland, [3] the Gordon constituency was one of five covering the Aberdeenshire council area and the Aberdeen City council area.
The Gordon constituency covered a central portion of the Aberdeenshire area and a northern portion of the Aberdeen City council area. Entirely within the Aberdeenshire council area, there is also Banff and Buchan, to the north of Gordon, and West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, to the south. Entirely within the Aberdeen City council area, there is also Aberdeen North, to the south of Gordon, and Aberdeen South, further south.
The towns of Ellon, Huntly and Inverurie remain within the constituency.
Keith (within the Moray council area) was transferred to the Moray constituency, Turriff was transferred to the Banff and Buchan constituency, and Kemnay and Westhill were transferred to the West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine constituency.
The Bridge of Don and Dyce areas (within the Aberdeen City council area) were transferred to the Gordon constituency from the Aberdeen North constituency.
This section needs additional citations for verification .(January 2021) |
An affluent, semi-rural constituency spanning across central Aberdeenshire and northern Aberdeen, the Gordon constituency was among the least-deprived and highest-earning seats in Scotland, [4] [5] with a high proportion of skilled and professional workers. [6]
The constituency covers the A90 and A96 corridors in Aberdeenshire north of Aberdeen, covering the towns of Huntly, Inverurie and Kintore situated along the Valleys of the River Don in the region of Garioch, and the towns of Ellon and Oldmeldrum in Formartine. The boundaries of the constituency stretch south into Aberdeen to the south-east, to cover the city's northern suburbs of Bankhead, Bridge of Don, Danestone and Dyce.
Oil, agriculture and tourism form an important part of the local economy, with most of the constituency's settlements around Aberdeen serving as commuter territory for the city, including the towns of Inverurie and Kintore and the villages of Balmedie and Newmachar, where there is rapid population growth, with many areas seeing their population double within the last decade. Various energy companies have representations in Dyce and Bridge of Don, among which are EMS Oil and GE Oil and Gas. The constituency also covers Aberdeen International Airport in Dyce, Scotland's third-busiest airport by passenger numbers. Huntly, approximately 40 miles north-west of Aberdeen, is the historic home of the Gordon Highlanders regiment and is the site of Huntly Castle, the ancestral home of the chief of Clan Gordon. Huntly is also the headquarters of Dean's bakers, who produce shortbread. Ellon, approximately 16 miles north of Aberdeen, is a coastal resort sitting on the mouth of the River Ythan. On the outskirts of the town is a brewery owned by BrewDog.
In the UK Parliament, Gordon was traditionally a Liberal-Conservative marginal. The constituency's predecessor seats of East Aberdeenshire and West Aberdeenshire were previously represented by the Conservatives. When Gordon was first formed in 1983, it was narrowly won by Malcolm Bruce of the Liberals, with a slender majority of 850 votes. Bruce subsequently increased his majority tenfold in 1987, before seeing it cut to just 274 in 1992, in new boundaries which benefited the Conservative Party. Since the Conservatives' landslide defeat in 1997, Gordon had returned Bruce of the Liberal Democrats with an increasing strong majority until Richard Thomson of the Scottish National Party cut his majority down by nearly 4,000 votes in 2010. In the nationwide SNP landslide victory in 2015, Salmond, former First Minister of Scotland and SNP Leader, gained the seat for the SNP with a majority of 8,687 votes ahead of the Liberal Democrats; with Bruce standing down. Salmond previously represented the coterminous Gordon constituency in the Scottish Parliament from 2007 until his retirement from the Scottish Parliament in 2016.
In the Scottish Parliament, Gordon was first represented by Nora Radcliffe of the Liberal Democrats in 1999. The constituency was a three-way marginal between the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and SNP. Alex Salmond gained the constituency in 2007 with a 2,000 majority, increasing it to over 15,000 votes in 2011. More recently the Conservatives have made a strong comeback in Gordon, gaining the overlapping Aberdeenshire West constituency in 2016, and coming second behind the SNP in the overlapping constituencies of Aberdeen Donside and Aberdeenshire East.
At the 2016 European Union membership referendum, the Gordon constituency is estimated to have voted to Remain within the European Union on a margin of 55.5% Remain 44.5% Leave, an above-average Leave vote relative to the rest of Scotland.
The Scottish Conservatives took the most votes in the area at the 2017 local council elections, prompting party leader Ruth Davidson to say on a visit to Inverurie that "We won the local government election in Gordon this week, beating the SNP into second place. It means that in this seat, as in many others, it is a two-horse race between us and the [Scottish] Nationalists." [7] In response to Davidson's comments, the SNP MP for Gordon at the time, Alex Salmond said: “It’s just arrogance, for Ruth Davidson to continue the line of ‘we’re going to take this seat, and we’re going to take that seat’. Once it doesn't happen, it's very bad news for Ruth Davidson's credibility.” [8]
Salmond was later unseated by Conservative Colin Clark at the 2017 snap election on 8 June. The swing to the Conservatives was 20.4%, the party's largest swing in the whole of Britain. The defeat of Salmond was a bitter blow to SNP activists in the North East who characterised it to The Guardian as, “So disrespectful”, “How could local people do that to him?” [9]
However, in the 2019 election, Richard Thomson narrowly regained the seat for the SNP with a majority of 819 (1.4%), meaning the seat remains an SNP-Conservative marginal.
Election | Member [10] | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
1983 | Sir Malcolm Bruce | Liberal | |
1988 | Liberal Democrat | ||
2015 | Alex Salmond | SNP | |
2017 | Colin Clark | Conservative | |
2019 | Richard Thomson | SNP |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
SNP | Richard Thomson | 23,885 | 42.7 | +6.8 | |
Conservative | Colin Clark | 23,066 | 41.3 | +0.6 | |
Liberal Democrats | James Oates | 5,913 | 10.6 | −1.0 | |
Labour | Heather Herbert | 3,052 | 5.5 | −6.3 | |
Majority | 819 | 1.4 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 55,916 | 70.2 | +1.8 | ||
SNP gain from Conservative | Swing | +3.2 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Colin Clark | 21,861 | 40.7 | +29.0 | |
SNP | Alex Salmond [16] | 19,254 | 35.9 | −11.8 | |
Labour | Kirsten Muat [17] | 6,340 | 11.8 | +5.9 | |
Liberal Democrats | David Evans [18] | 6,230 | 11.6 | −21.1 | |
Majority | 2,607 | 4.8 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 53,740 | 68.4 | −4.9 | ||
Conservative gain from SNP | Swing | +20.4 | |||
This was the largest swing towards the Conservatives within the United Kingdom at the 2017 general election.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
SNP | Alex Salmond [20] | 27,717 | 47.7 | +25.5 | |
Liberal Democrats | Christine Jardine | 19,030 | 32.7 | −3.3 | |
Conservative | Colin Clark | 6,807 | 11.7 | −7.0 | |
Labour | Braden Davy | 3,441 | 5.9 | −14.2 | |
UKIP | Emily Santos [21] | 1,166 | 2.0 | New | |
Majority | 8,687 | 15.0 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 58,161 | 73.3 | +6.9 | ||
SNP gain from Liberal Democrats | Swing | +14.4 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal Democrats | Malcolm Bruce | 17,575 | 36.0 | −9.0 | |
SNP | Richard Thomson | 10,827 | 22.2 | +6.2 | |
Labour | Barney Crockett | 9,811 | 20.1 | −0.1 | |
Conservative | Ross Thomson | 9,111 | 18.7 | +1.1 | |
Scottish Green | Sue Edwards | 752 | 1.5 | New | |
BNP | Elise Jones | 699 | 1.4 | New | |
Majority | 6,748 | 13.8 | −9.0 | ||
Turnout | 48,755 | 66.4 | +4.6 | ||
Liberal Democrats hold | Swing | −7.6 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal Democrats | Malcolm Bruce | 20,008 | 45.0 | +6.2 | |
Labour | Iain Brotchie | 8,982 | 20.2 | −1.3 | |
Conservative | Philip Atkinson | 7,842 | 17.6 | −1.4 | |
SNP | Joanna Strathdee | 7,098 | 16.0 | −3.3 | |
Scottish Socialist | Tommy Paterson | 508 | 1.1 | −0.4 | |
Majority | 11,026 | 24.8 | +19.9 | ||
Turnout | 44,438 | 61.8 | +5.2 | ||
Liberal Democrats hold | Swing | +3.8 | |||
Before the 2005 general election, Scotland went through major boundary changes.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal Democrats | Malcolm Bruce | 17,928 | 48.5 | +5.9 | |
Conservative | Nanette Milne | 8,049 | 21.8 | −4.2 | |
SNP | Rhona Kemp | 5,760 | 15.6 | −4.4 | |
Labour | Ellis Thorpe | 4,730 | 12.8 | +2.5 | |
Scottish Socialist | John Sangster | 534 | 1.4 | New | |
Majority | 9,879 | 27.7 | +11.1 | ||
Turnout | 35,001 | 58.3 | −13.6 | ||
Liberal Democrats hold | Swing | ||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal Democrats | Malcolm Bruce | 17,999 | 42.6 | +15.4 [26] | |
Conservative | John Porter | 11,002 | 26.0 | −22.0 | |
SNP | Richard Lochhead | 8,435 | 20.0 | +1.4 | |
Labour | Lindsey Kirkhill | 4,350 | 10.3 | +4.0 | |
Referendum | Fred Pidcock | 459 | 1.1 | New | |
Majority | 6,997 | 16.6 | +16.1 | ||
Turnout | 42,245 | 71.9 | −2.4 | ||
Liberal Democrats win |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | 19,596 | 48.0 | |||
Liberal Democrats | 11,110 | 27.2 | |||
SNP | 7,593 | 18.6 | |||
Labour | 2,561 | 6.3 | |||
Majority | 8,486 | 20.8 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal Democrats | Malcolm Bruce | 22,158 | 37.4 | −12.0 | |
Conservative | John Porter | 21,884 | 37.0 | +5.1 | |
SNP | Brian Adam | 8,445 | 14.3 | +7.1 | |
Labour | Peter Morrell | 6,682 | 11.3 | −0.2 | |
Majority | 274 | 0.4 | -17.1 | ||
Turnout | 59,169 | 74.3 | +0.6 | ||
Liberal Democrats hold | Swing | ||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | Malcolm Bruce | 26,770 | 49.4 | +5.6 | |
Conservative | Peter Leckie | 17,251 | 31.9 | −10.1 | |
Labour | Morag Morrell | 6,228 | 11.5 | +3.0 | |
SNP | George Wright | 3,876 | 7.2 | +1.5 | |
Majority | 9,519 | 17.5 | +15.7 | ||
Turnout | 54,125 | 73.7 | +3.6 | ||
Liberal hold | Swing | ||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | Malcolm Bruce | 20,134 | 43.8 | +13.1 | |
Conservative | James Cran | 19,284 | 42.0 | +0.2 | |
Labour | George Grant | 3,899 | 8.5 | −5.7 | |
SNP | Kenneth Guild | 2,636 | 5.7 | −7.6 | |
Majority | 850 | 1.8 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 45,953 | 70.1 | |||
Liberal win (new seat) |
Aberdeenshire is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland.
Gordon was formerly one of five local government districts in the Grampian region of Scotland between 1975 and 1996.
North East Scotland is one of the eight electoral regions of the Scottish Parliament which were created in 1999. Ten of the parliament's 73 first past the post constituencies are sub-divisions of the region and it elects seven of the 56 additional-member Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). Thus it elects a total of 17 MSPs.
Aberdeenshire or the County of Aberdeen is a historic county and registration county of Scotland. The area of the county, excluding the Aberdeen City council area itself, is also a lieutenancy area. The county borders Kincardineshire, Angus and Perthshire to the south, Inverness-shire and Banffshire to the west, and the North Sea to the north and east. It has a coast-line of 65 miles (105 km). The county gives its name to the modern Aberdeenshire council area, which covers a larger area than the historic county.
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Aberdeen South is a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and it elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election.
Aberdeen North is a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and it elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It was first used in the 1885 general election, but has undergone various boundary changes since that date.
West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Westminster), which elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It was first used in the 1997 general election, but has undergone boundary changes since that date. West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine was re-created as a parliamentary constituency in 1997, having previously existed as Kincardine and Western Aberdeenshire from 1918 to 1950.
Banff and Buchan is a constituency of the House of Commons, located in the north-east of Scotland within the Aberdeenshire council area. It elects one Member of Parliament at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system of voting.
Aberdeen and Kincardine Central, also known as Central Aberdeenshire, was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 until 1950. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
EastAberdeenshire was a Scottish county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1868 to 1918 and from 1950 to 1983. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
WestAberdeenshire was a Scottish county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1868 to 1918 and from 1950 to 1983. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Banff and Buchan was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) between 1999 and 2011 when it was substantially succeeded by Banffshire and Buchan Coast. 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 North East Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Gordon was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament. It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It was one of nine constituencies in the North East 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.
The 2011 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament.
Richard Gordon Thomson is a Scottish politician. He is a member of the Scottish National Party (SNP) He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gordon since the 2019 general election, having previously the leader of the SNP group on Aberdeenshire Council. He has been serving as SNP Spokesperson for Business and Trade since 2022, and SNP Spokesperson for Wales and Northern Ireland since 2021.
Aberdeen Donside is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the Aberdeen City council area. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It is one of ten constituencies in the North East Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the ten constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Banffshire and Buchan Coast is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering parts of the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Moray. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It is one also of ten constituencies in the North East Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to ten constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Aberdeenshire East is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the council area of Aberdeenshire. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It is also one of ten constituencies in the North East Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the ten constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Aberdeenshire West is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the council area of Aberdeenshire. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. Also, however, it is one of ten constituencies in the North East Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to ten constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
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