Ross, Skye and Lochaber is 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 ...

(

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

). 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 their ...

system of election. The constituency covers a central portion of the

Highland council area Highland ( gd, A' Ghàidhealtachd, ; sco, Hieland) is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in the United Kingdom. It was the 7th most populous council area in Scotland at the 2011 census. It share ...

, and at , it covers the largest area of any House of Commons constituency in Britain. Until the 2015 general election, it was represented by former

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties See also *Liberal democracy *Lib ...

leader

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 ...

. Since then, it has been represented by

Ian Blackford Ian Blackford (born 14 May 1961) is a Scottish politician who served as Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in the House of Commons from 2017 to 2022. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ross, Skye and Lochaber since 2015. Or ...

, the former leader of 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 ...

in the House of Commons from 2017 to 2022.

Boundaries

The constituency was created in

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 ...

by merging an area from Ross, Skye and Inverness West with an area from Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber. Most of the rest of Ross, Skye and Inverness West was merged with the rest of Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber to form Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey. A small area of Ross, Skye and Inverness West was merged into Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross. For representation in the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyro ...

( Holyrood) the area of the Westminster constituency is divided between

Caithness, Sutherland and Ross Caithness, Sutherland and Ross (Gaelic: ''Gallaibh, Cataibh agus Ros'') is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament covering the northern part of the Highland council area. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first pa ...

and

Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament ( Holyrood) covering part of the Highland council area. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It is also o ...

Local government 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 Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency is one of three Westminster constituencies covering the

, the other two being Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey and Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross. Ross, Skye and Lochaber covers a central portion of the

council area {{Unreferenced, date=May 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A council area is one of the areas defined in Schedule 1 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 and is under the control of one of the local authorities in Scotland created by that Act. ...

, with Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey to its south and east and Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross to its north. Ross, Skye and Lochaber includes the

Black Isle The Black Isle ( gd, an t-Eilean Dubh, ) is a peninsula within Ross and Cromarty, in the Scottish Highlands. It includes the towns of Cromarty and Fortrose, and the villages of Culbokie, Jemimaville, Rosemarkie, Avoch, Munlochy, Tore, and Nor ...

on the east coast of Scotland and, in the west, the

Hebridean The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebri ...

island of Skye. When created in 2005, the Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency covered 26 out of the 80 wards of the council area: 11 wards ( Avoch and Fortrose, Black Isle North, Conon and Maryburgh, Dingwall North, Dingwall South,

Gairloch Gairloch ( ; gd, Geàrrloch , meaning "Short Loch") is a village, civil parish and community on the shores of Loch Gairloch in Wester Ross, in the North-West Highlands of Scotland. A tourist destination in the summer months, Gairloch has a go ...

, Knockbain and Killearnan, Lochbroom,

Lochcarron Lochcarron ( gd, Loch Carrann) is a village, community and civil parish in the Wester Ross area of Highland, Scotland. It has a population of 923. Locality The name Lochcarron is also applied to the collection of small settlements strung out al ...

Muir of Ord Muir of Ord ( gd, Am Blàr Dubh) is a village in Easter Ross, in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is situated near the western end of the Black Isle, about west of the city of Inverness and south of Dingwall. The village has a populati ...

and Strathpeffer and Strathconon) out of the 18 wards of the Ross and Cromarty committee area, all of the six wards of the Skye and Lochalsh area committee, all of the eight wards of the Lochaber committee area and one ward ( Beauly and Strathglass) out of the 23 wards of the Inverness area committee. Ward boundaries were redrawn again in 2007, and the management areas were abolished in favour of three new corporate management areas. The new areas consist of groups of the new wards, and boundaries are similar to those of the Westminster constituencies, as created in 2005. Two areas, the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross area and the Ross, Skye and Lochaber area, have the names of Westminster constituencies. The name of the third area, the Inverness, Nairn, and Badenoch and Strathspey area, is very similar to that of the third constituency.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

: ''Note: The constituency was new in 2005 and +/- percentages are notional.

References

External links

** {{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Skye And Lochaber (Uk Parliament Constituency) Highland constituencies, UK Parliament Westminster Parliamentary constituencies in Scotland Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 2005