Coatbridge and Bellshill is a

constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) using the

first-past-the-post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

voting system. It has been represented since

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

by Frank McNally of

Scottish Labour Scottish Labour (), is the part of the UK Labour Party (UK), Labour Party active in Scotland. Ideologically social democratic and Unionism in the United Kingdom, unionist, it holds 23 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 37 of 57 Sco ...

. Prior to the

2023 review of Westminster constituencies The 2023 review of Westminster constituencies was the most recent cycle of the process to redraw the constituency map for the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The new constituency boundaries were approved by the Privy Council on 15 Nov ...

, which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the constituency was known as Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill.

History

Under the Fifth Review of UK Parliament constituencies, which came into effect for the 2005 general election, the constituency was created as Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill. It was the successor to the Coatbridge and Chryston constituency, with the addition of the town of

Bellshill Bellshill (pronounced "Bells hill") is a town in North Lanarkshire in Scotland, southeast of Glasgow city centre and west of Edinburgh. Other nearby localities are Motherwell to the south, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton to the south ...

from the abolished constituency of Hamilton North and Bellshill. Further to the completion of the 2023 review, the seat was subject to boundary changes which resulted in the loss of Chryston to Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch. As a consequence, it was renamed Coatbridge and Bellshill, first contested at the 2024 general election. Traditionally, the area served by the seat and its predecessors was the safest Labour area in Scotland. The area consistently returned Labour MPs from 1935 until 2015 when the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

gained the seat from

on an unprecedented 36% swing, unseating the incumbent Tom Clarke MP who had represented the area since the 1982 Coatbridge and Airdrie by-election. Since 2015, the seat has changed hands several times. Once back to Labour in 2017, with Hugh Gaffney unseating the

incumbent Phil Boswell. The seat then swung back to the SNP in 2019, with Steven Bonnar gaining the seat. In 2024, the seat again swung back to Labour with Frank McNally gaining the seat from the SNP incumbent Steven Bonnar.

Boundaries

2005–2024 (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)

Under the Fifth Review of UK Parliament constituencies, the boundaries were defined in accordance with the ward structure in place on 30 November 2004. Further to reviews of local government ward boundaries which came into effect in 2007 and 2017, but did not affect the parliamentary boundaries, the constituency comprised the following wards or part wards of

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the north-east of the Glasgow City council area and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs, commuter towns, and villages. It also borders East Dunbartonshire, Falkirk (co ...

Council: *In full: Gartcosh, Glenboig and Moodiesburn, Coatbridge South, Coatbridge West, Thorniewood. *Most: Stepps, Chryston and Muirhead, Coatbridge North,

. *Small part: Cumbernauld North, Mossend and Holytown.

2024–present (Coatbridge and Bellshill)

As a result of the

, the seat lost Chryston to Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch. The newly named constituency comprises the following wards of North Lanarkshire Council: *In full: Gartcosh, Glenboig and Moodiesburn, Coatbridge North, Coatbridge South, Coatbridge West, Thorniewood,

. *In part: Airdrie Central (very small area), Mossend and Holytown (

Mossend Mossend is a village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, located beside the town of Bellshill, west of the villages of Holytown and New Stevenston, north of the larger town of Motherwell and south of the Eurocentral industrial park and the M8 motor ...

area).

Constituency profile

The constituency covers the west of the

council area, and is predominantly urban.

Coatbridge Coatbridge (, ) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Airdrie, Coatbridge forms the area known as the Monklands (popula ...

lies relatively central within the constituency, with the urban/rural mix to the north encompassing the villages of

Glenboig Glenboig (Scottish Gaelic: An Gleann Bhog) is a village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland lying north of Coatbridge and to the south east of Kirkintilloch and is approximately from Glasgow, Glasgow City Centre. According to a estimate, the popula ...

, Moodiesburn and Gartcosh.

lies within the southern most part of the constituency.

Electoral Calculus Electoral Calculus is a political consultancy and pollster, known for its political forecasting website that attempts to predict future United Kingdom general election results. It uses MRP (Multi-level Regression and Post-stratification) to c ...

characterises the seat as 'Traditionalist', with left-wing economic views but less liberal social attitudes. The average age in the constituency is 47.6, which puts it just below the UK and Scottish averages. Employment in the constituency is at 64%, putting it broadly in line with the rest of Scotland and above the overall UK average of 58%. Home ownership in the constituency is below both the Scottish and UK averages, at 59%. Additionally, Electoral Calculus puts the ethnic demography of the constituency as 98% white, above both Scottish and UK averages.Electoral Calculus https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/fcgi-bin/calcwork23.py?seat=Coatbridge+and+Bellshill

Members of Parliament

Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill Coatbridge and Bellshill

Election results

Elections in the 2020s

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Notes

Previous constituencies

Coatbridge and Chryston – 1997–2005 Monklands West – 1983–1997 Coatbridge and Airdrie – 1950–1983 Coatbridge – 1918–1950

References

External links

Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill UK Parliament constituency
(boundaries April 2005 – May 2024) at ''MapIt UK''

(boundaries from June 2024) at ''MapIt UK'' {{Coord, 55.885, -4.060, display=title, region:GB_scale:50000 Westminster Parliamentary constituencies in Scotland Politics of North Lanarkshire Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 2005 Bellshill Coatbridge