Ross, Skye and Inverness West was a

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

of 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 ...

from

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

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 ...

. The constituency elected one

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) by the

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

system of

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

. The constituency was formed by merging most of the former Ross, Cromarty and Skye constituency (that constituency minus an

Easter Ross Easter Ross ( gd, Ros an Ear) is a loosely defined area in the east of Ross, Highland, Scotland. The name is used in the constituency name Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, which is the name of both a British House of Commons constituenc ...

area) with part of the former Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber constituency. When abolished in 2005 much of the area of the constituency became part of the then new Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency. Most of the rest went to Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey while a tiny portion joined Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross. There was also a Ross, Skye and Inverness West constituency of the Scottish Parliament, which was created in 1999 with the same boundaries as the former House of Commons constituency.

Boundaries

Skye and Lochalsh District, the Inverness District electoral divisions of Aird North, Aird South, Ballifeary-Columba, Caledonian Canal, Merkinch, and Scorguie, and the Ross and Cromarty District electoral divisions of Alness and Ardross, Black Isle East, Black Isle West, Dingwall, Ferindonald, Lochbroom, Ord and Conon, Strathconon, and Wester Ross.

Council area

:''See also ''

Politics of the Highland council area The politics of the Highland council area in Scotland are evident in the deliberations and decisions of the Highland Council, in elections to the council, and in elections to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminst ...

The constituency area was entirely within the

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

unitary council area A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

. In terms of

Highland Council The Highland Council (' ), the political body covering the Highland local authority created in 1995, comprises 21 wards, each electing three or four councillors by the single transferable vote system, which creates a form of proportional represe ...

committee area Many large local government councils in the United Kingdom have a system of area committees or area boards, which involve local people and organisations in decisions affecting council spending within their area. They cover a geographical area suc ...

s it covered

Ross and Cromarty Ross and Cromarty ( gd, Ros agus Cromba), sometimes referred to as Ross-shire and Cromartyshire, is a variously defined area in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. There is a registration county and a lieutenancy area in current use, the latt ...

minus an

area, all of

Skye and Lochalsh Skye and Lochalsh ( gd, 'An t-Eilean Sgitheanach agus Loch Aillse') is one of eight former local government districts of the two-tier Highland region of Scotland. The main offices of the Skye and Lochalsh district council were in Portree, on the ...

, and part of

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

Members of Parliament

Charles Kennedy Charles Peter Kennedy (25 November 1959 – 1 June 2015) was a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1999 to 2006, and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ross, Skye and Lochaber from 1983 ...

of the Liberal Democrats was elected in 1997 and re-elected in 2001. Most of Kennedy's tenure as leader of his party coincided with his time as MP for this seat. When the constituency was abolished in 2005, Kennedy was elected MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber.

Election results

Elections of the 2000s

Elections of the 1990s

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Skye And Inverness West (Uk Parliament Constituency) Historic parliamentary constituencies in Scotland (Westminster) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1997 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 2005 Highland constituencies, UK Parliament (historic)