Lanark and Hamilton East 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 " constitue ...

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. T ...

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 suprem ...

, which was first used at the 2005 general election. It covers parts of the former Clydesdale, Hamilton North and Bellshill and Hamilton South constituencies, and it elects one

Member of Parliament (MP) 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 often ...

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 thei ...

voting system. Historically a safe Labour seat, in 2015 it was gained by the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from th ...

when they won a record 56 of the 59 Scottish seats at Westminster; ending 51 years of Labour Party dominance at UK general elections in Scotland. Two years later at the 2017 general election, the Conservatives surged into second place; only 266 votes behind sitting MP Angela Crawley - followed by Labour in third place at just 96 votes behind the Conservative candidate, making the seat Britain's tightest three-way marginal. The result also made it the tightest three-way marginal since 1945.

Constituency profile

The seat covers most of Hamilton and the rural area around Lanark.

Electoral Calculus Electoral Calculus is a political forecasting web site which attempts to predict future United Kingdom general election results. It considers national factors but excludes local issues. Main features The site was developed by Martin Baxter, ...

describes the seat as "Traditional", characterised by working class people with lower levels of income and formal education.

Boundaries

As created by the Fifth Review of the

Boundary Commission for Scotland The boundary commissions in the United Kingdom are non-departmental public bodies responsible for determining the boundaries of constituencies for elections to the House of Commons. There are four boundary commissions: * Boundary Commission fo ...

the constituency is one of six covering the Dumfries and Galloway council area, the Scottish Borders council area and the South Lanarkshire council area. The other five constituencies are: Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk,

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the historic counties of Dumfriesshire, Kirkc ...

, Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow, and Rutherglen and Hamilton West. The constituency is created with the electoral wards of: *In full:

Bothwell and Uddingston Bothwell is a conservation village in the South Lanarkshire council area of Scotland. It lies on the north bank of the River Clyde, adjacent to Uddingston and Hamilton, east-south-east of Glasgow city centre. Description and history An an ...

, Clydesdale North, Clydesdale West, Larkhall. *In part: Clydesdale East, Clydesdale South, Hamilton North and East, Hamilton South, Hamilton West and Earnock.

Members of Parliament

Election results

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lanark And Hamilton East (Uk Parliament Constituency) Westminster Parliamentary constituencies in Scotland Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 2005 Politics of South Lanarkshire Bothwell and Uddingston Hamilton, South Lanarkshire Lanark Larkhall