Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath is a
county constituency
In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons.
Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called "constituenc ...
representing the areas around the towns of
Kirkcaldy
Kirkcaldy ( ; sco, Kirkcaldy; gd, Cair Chaladain) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, ...
and
Cowdenbeath
Cowdenbeath (; sco, Coudenbeith) is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 18 ...
, in
Fife
Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the 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 parliament. ...
of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
. It is currently represented by
Alba Party
The Alba Party is a Scottish nationalist and pro-independence political party in Scotland. The party was founded in February 2021, with Alex Salmond (a former first minister of Scotland) announced as party leader shortly thereafter. Salmond lau ...
politician
Neale Hanvey
James Neale Hanvey (born 28 December 1964) is a Scottish politician serving as the Leader of the Alba Party in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons since 2021, and the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of ...
.
It was previously represented by former
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...
from 2005 until 2015, who had been MP for the
Dunfermline East constituency from 1983-2005 until boundary changes. He served as
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
from 1997 to 2007 and as
UK Prime Minister
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pri ...
from 2007 to 2010.
Boundaries
The Fife Council wards of Aberdour and Burntisland West; Auchtertool and Burntisland East; Ballingry and Lochore; Bennochy and Valley; Cowdenbeath Central; Crosshill and Lochgelly North; Dalgety Bay East; Dalgety Bay West and Hillend; Dunnikier; Dysart and Gallatown; Glebe Park, Pathhead and Sinclairtown; Hayfield and Balsusney; Kelty; Kinghorn and Invertiel; Linktown and Kirkcaldy Central; Lumphinnans and Lochgelly South; Oakfield and Cowdenbeath North; Raith and Longbraes; Smeaton and Overton; Templehall East; and Templehall West.
The constituency is bounded by
Ochil and South Perthshire to the north,
Dunfermline and West Fife
Dunfermline and West Fife is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created for the 2005 general election from all of the old Dunfermline West and parts of the old Dunfermlin ...
to the west and
Glenrothes
Glenrothes (; , ; sco, Glenrothes; gd, Gleann Rathais) is a town situated in the heart of Fife, in east-central Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south of Dundee. The town had a population of 39,277 in the 2011 census, making i ...
to the east.
Along with Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, the towns of
Burntisland
Burntisland ( , sco, also Bruntisland) is a former royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland, on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 6,269. It was previously known as Wester Kingho ...
,
Dalgety Bay
Dalgety Bay () is a coastal town and parish in Fife, Scotland. According to Fife Council, the town is home to , making this the eighth-largest place in Fife. The civil parish has a population of 10,777 (in 2011).Census of Scotland 2011, Table KS ...
,
Dysart,
Kelty
Kelty (Scottish Gaelic: Cailtidh) is a former coal mining village located in Fife, Scotland. Lying in the heart of the old mining heartlands of Fife, it is situated on the Fife/Kinross-shire boundary and has a population of around 6,000 res ...
, and
Lochgelly
Lochgelly ( ; gd, Loch Gheallaidh, IPA: ɫ̪ɔxˈʝaɫ̪ai is a town in Fife, Scotland. It is located between Loch Ore, Lochs Ore and Gelly to the north-west and south-east respectively. It is separated from Cowdenbeath by the village of ...
and the villages of
Aberdour
Aberdour (; Scots: , gd, Obar Dobhair) is a scenic and historic village on the south coast of Fife, Scotland. It is on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, looking south to the island of Inchcolm and its Abbey, and to Leith and Edinburgh beyo ...
,
Auchtertool
Auchtertool (; gd, Uachdar Tuil) is a small village in Fife, Scotland. It is 4 miles west of Kirkcaldy. The name is from the Gaelic ''uachdar'', meaning ''upland'' or ''heights'' above the Tiel burn (from Gaelic ''tuil'' meaning ''torrent'').Tay ...
,
Ballingry
Ballingry ( or locally or (older) ); sco, Ballingry, Bingry, gd, Baile Iongrach) is a small town in Fife, Scotland. It is near the boundary with Perth and Kinross, north of Lochgelly. It has an estimated population (2016) of . The once separat ...
,
Crosshill Cross Hill or Crosshill may refer to:
Places
* Cross Hill, Cornwall, England
*Cross Hill, Derbyshire, England
* Cross Hill, Gloucestershire, England
* Cross Hill, South Carolina, USA
* Crosshill, East Ayrshire, Scotland
*Crosshill, Fife, Scotland
* ...
,
Glencraig
Glencraig is a very small former mining village in Scotland, situated in the Benarty area of Fife, between Crosshill and Lochgelly
Lochgelly ( ; gd, Loch Gheallaidh, IPA: ɫ̪ɔxˈʝaɫ̪ai is a town in Fife, Scotland. It is located betwe ...
,
Kinghorn
Kinghorn (; gd, Ceann Gronna) is a town and parish in Fife, Scotland. A seaside resort with two beaches, Kinghorn Beach and Pettycur Bay, plus a fishing port, it stands on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, opposite Edinburgh. According ...
,
Lochore
Lochore is a former mining village in Fife, Scotland. It takes its name from the nearby Loch Ore.
It is largely joined to the adjacent villages of Ballingry to the north and Crosshill to the south.
Education
Most of the children in Lochore go to ...
and
Lumphinnans
Lumphinnans (Scottish Gaelic: Lann Fhìonain) is a small, former mining village along the B981 road, from west to east between the towns of Cowdenbeath and Lochgelly, in central Fife.
Lumphinnans Primary and Community School is the local primar ...
make up the constituency.
Members of Parliament
The first Member of Parliament after the seat's creation in 2005, was the then
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
,
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...
; who had previously represented
Dunfermline East from
1983
The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call.
Events January
* January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...
to
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
, and later succeeded
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
as
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
in 2007. At the
general election of 2010, Brown was re-elected as an MP, but was defeated as Prime Minister, and soon resigned as
Leader of the Labour Party. He announced that he would continue to serve as an
Opposition
Opposition may refer to:
Arts and media
* ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars
* The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band
* ''The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Comed ...
backbencher
In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the " ...
, and did not retire from the Commons until the
2015 general election, which he did not contest. On that occasion, the
SNP won parliamentary representation in the area for the first time, in line with the party's landslide victory throughout Scotland at that election. In 2017, Labour regained the seat from the SNP, with
Lesley Laird
Lesley Margaret Laird (' Langan; born 15 November 1958) is a Scottish politician who served as Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2017 to 2019. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath from 2017 to 2019, and ...
winning over the SNP incumbent
Roger Mullin
William Arthur Roger Mullin (born 12 March 1948) is a former Scottish National Party (SNP) politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath from May 2015, until being defeated at the 2017 snap general election.
Edu ...
by 259 votes.
Laird was appointed
Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland
The Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland is a member of the UK Shadow Cabinet responsible for the scrutiny of the Secretary of State for Scotland and his/her department, the Scotland Office. The incumbent holder of the office is Ian Murray ...
less than a week later on 14 June 2017.
In 2019, Neale Hanvey unseated Laird with a majority of 1,243 votes. Hanvey was suspended from the SNP before the election for use of anti-Semitic language in social media posts. Although Hanvey was suspended from the SNP, he was still listed as such on the ballot and his victory is recorded as an SNP gain from Labour.
It is the only known time in which a candidate has won a seat and sat as an independent following a suspension from their party.
He was later re-admitted to the party in June 2020. Hanvey defected from the SNP to join the new Alba Party in late March 2021, becoming Alba's second MP after
Kenny MacAskill
Kenneth Wright MacAskill (born 28 April 1958) is a Scottish politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for East Lothian since 2019. He previously served as Cabinet Secretary for Justice from 2007 to 2014 and was a Member of the Scottish ...
of
East Lothian
East Lothian (; sco, East Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921.
In 1975, the histo ...
.
Election results
Elections in the 2010s
1After nominations for the 2019 general election closed, the Scottish National Party suspended Neale Hanvey and withdrew all support for his campaign on 28 November 2019 due to allegations of
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
.
Elections in the 2000s
:
See also
*
Politics of Scotland
The politics of Scotland operate within the constitution of the United Kingdom, of which Scotland is a home nation. Scotland is a democracy, being represented in both the Scottish Parliament and the Parliament of the United Kingdom since the S ...
*
List of current MPs for Scottish constituencies
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirkcaldy And Cowdenbeath (Uk Parliament Constituency)
Politics of Fife
Westminster Parliamentary constituencies in Scotland
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 2005
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom represented by a sitting Prime Minister
2005 establishments in Scotland
Cowdenbeath
Kirkcaldy
Lochgelly