Ochil and South Perthshire 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 ...

. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election. The constituency was created for the 2005 general election as a result of the Fifth Review of the

Boundary Commission for Scotland In the United Kingdom, the boundary commissions are non-departmental public bodies responsible for determining the boundaries of Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, parliamentary constituencies for elections to the House of Co ...

. It has been represented since 2019 by John Nicolson of 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, ...

(SNP). The seat was abolished prior to the 2024 general election and replaced by parts of five other constituencies.Boundary Commission Scotland 2023 Review Report
/ref>

Constituency profile and voting patterns

Constituency profile

The Ochil and South Perthshire constituency covered the rural south of the

Perth and Kinross Perth and Kinross (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. It is bordered by Highland (council area), Highland and Aberdeenshire to the north, Angus, Scotland, Angus, Dundee, and F ...

council area south of the River Tay, running down through the Ochil Hills into the more industrial Clackmannanshire council area to the south. It was an affluent constituency. Agriculture and tourism formed an important part of the local economy in the north of the constituency in southern Perth and Kinross-shire, housing affluent resort towns such as Auchterarder, Crieff and Kinross. Clackmannanshire is better known for its light industry and breweries dotted along the course of the

River Forth The River Forth is a major river in central Scotland, long, which drains into the North Sea on the east coast of the country. Its drainage basin covers much of Stirlingshire in Scotland's Central Belt. The Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic name for the ...

and its northern tributary streams.

Voting patterns

The Ochil and South Perthshire constituency was formed from elements of the old Ochil and

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

constituencies. Perth was traditionally a strong area of support for the Conservative Party until the party's wipeout in Scotland at the 1997 general election, from then onwards; the area usually voted SNP. Ochil covered the counties of Kinross-shire and Clackmannanshire, alongside some of the more industrialised parts of Stirlingshire, traditionally an SNP-Labour marginal. When Ochil and South Perthshire was first formed, it was thought of as an SNP-Labour marginal; however, the SNP failed to win the constituency when it was created in

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, and at the subsequent general election in 2010. Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh gained the seat from Gordon Banks of the Labour Party in a landslide victory across Scotland at the 2015 general election as they won 56 of Scotland's 59 parliamentary seats. At the 2017 general election, Ahmed-Sheikh lost the constituency to Luke Graham of the Conservative Party, and in 2019, Graham lost the seat to John Nicolson, former SNP MP for

East Dunbartonshire East Dunbartonshire (; , ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders Glasgow City Council Area to the south, North Lanarkshire to the east, Stirling (council area), Stirling to the north, and West Dunbartonshire to the west. East ...

. At the 2017 local election, all wards in southern Perth and Kinross-shire voted Conservative by a good margin. The result in Clackmannanshire was mixed, with the SNP forming the largest party across the county as a whole but missing out to the Conservatives in Dollar to the north-east of the council area and missing out to Labour in northern Alloa. The Conservatives came first across Ochil and South Perthshire on the whole, with the SNP in second place.

Boundaries

The constituency is composed of the Clackmannanshire council area (all five wards), and the

council wards of Strathtay, Strathearn, Strathallan, Almond and Earn, and

Kinross-shire The County of Kinross or Kinross-shire is a historic county and registration county in eastern Scotland, administered as part of Perth and Kinross since 1975. Surrounding its largest settlement and county town of Kinross, the county borders Per ...

. The constituency was created to cover Clackmannanshire and a southern portion of Perth and Kinross; the Perth and North Perthshire constituency was created at the same time to cover the rest of the Perth and Kinross council area. Prior to the 2005 election, the council areas had been covered by the

Angus Angus may refer to: *Angus, Scotland, a council area of Scotland, and formerly a province, sheriffdom, county and district of Scotland * Angus, Canada, a community in Essa, Ontario Animals * Angus cattle, various breeds of beef cattle Media * ...

, Ochil,

and North Tayside constituencies. The Perth constituency was entirely within the Perth and Kinross council area, the North Tayside constituency covered a northern portion of Perth and Kinross and a northern portion of the

Angus council area Angus (; ) is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross. Main industries include agriculture and fishing. Global pharmaceuticals ...

, the Angus constituency covered a small southeastern portion of Perth and Kinross, a southern portion of Angus and northern portions of the

Dundee City council area Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

, and the Ochil constituency covered another southeastern portion of the Perth and Kinross, the whole of Clackmannanshire and a southeastern portion of the

Stirling council area The Stirling council area (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and has an estimated population of (). It was created in 1975 as a lower-tier district within the Central region. The district covered parts of the historic counties ...

Abolition

Further to the completion of the

2023 periodic review of Westminster constituencies The 2023 review of Westminster constituencies was the most recent cycle of the process to redraw the Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, constituency map for the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The new constituency b ...

, the seat was abolished for the 2024 general election, with its contents distributed to five new constituencies: * The bulk of Clackmannanshire, including the town of

Alloa Alloa (Received Pronunciation ; Scottish pronunciation /ˈaloʊa/; , possibly meaning "rock plain") is a town in Clackmannanshire in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It is on the north bank of the Forth at the spot where some say it ceases to ...

, to Alloa and Grangemouth *

Strathearn Strathearn or Strath Earn (), also the Earn Valley, is the strath of the River Earn, which flows from Loch Earn to meet the River Tay in the east of Scotland. The area covers the stretch of the river, containing a number of settlements in ...

, Almond and Earn and

to Perth and Kinross-shire *

Strathallan Strathallan is the strath of the Allan Water in Scotland. The strath stretches south west and south from Auchterarder in Perth & Kinross through Blackford, Dunblane, Bridge of Allan and on to Stirling. Strathallan is also the name for one of t ...

to Stirling and Strathallan * The small town of Dollar to Dunfermline and Dollar * A small rural area in the north to Angus and Perthshire Glens

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

References

External links

Ochil and South Perthshire UK Parliament constituency
(boundaries April 2005 – May 2024) at ''MapIt UK'' {{Coord, 56.281, -3.545, display=title, region:GB_scale:200000 Historic parliamentary constituencies in Scotland (Westminster) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 2005 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 2024 Politics of Clackmannanshire Politics of Perth and Kinross