Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber was 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 " constituen ...

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 ...

from 1983 to 1997. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by 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 ...

system of election.

History

Throughout the 1983 to 1997 period, this marginal constituency was represented by a Liberal, and then

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...

, MP: Sir David Russell Johnston (later Baron Russell-Johnston), who had been, previously, MP for the

Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...

constituency.

Boundaries

The constituency was created to cover four of the eight districts of

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally, ''upland'' refers to a range of hills, typically from up to , while ''highland'' is usually reserved for range ...

local government region: the Inverness district, the Nairn district, the Lochaber district and the Badenoch and Strathspey district. The region and districts had been created in 1975, under the

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65) is an Act of Parliament (UK), act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that altered local government of Scotland, local government in Scotland on 16 May 1975. The act followed and largely impleme ...

, when the

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

and

burgh A burgh ( ) is an Autonomy, autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots language, Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when David I of Scotland, King David I created ...

system of local government was abolished. The other districts of the region were covered by the Ross, Cromarty and Skye constituency and the

Caithness and Sutherland Caithness and Sutherland was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1997. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The constituency was ...

constituency. In 1996, under the

Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 The Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 (c. 39) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created the current local government structure of 32 unitary authorities covering the whole of Scotland. It abolished the two-tier str ...

, the districts were abolished and the region became a

unitary council area A unitary authority is a type of local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed ...

. In 1997, constituency boundaries were redrawn to divide the Highland area between three new constituencies: Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Ross, Skye and Inverness West and Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross. New constituency boundaries divided the areas of some of the former districts.

Members of Parliament

Election results

Elections in the 1980s

Elections in the 1990s

In the 1992 election, the four major parties were separated by only 3.41%, the closest four-way result in an election to the UK Parliament since 1918.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Inverness, Nairn And Lochaber (Uk Parliament Constituency) Historic parliamentary constituencies in Scotland (Westminster) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1983 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1997 Highland constituencies, UK Parliament (historic)