Information about Na H Eileanan An Iar (uk Parliament Constituency)

Na h-Eileanan an Iar County constituency
Na h-Eileanan an Iar shown within Scotland
Created:	1918
MP:	Angus MacNeil
Party:	Scottish National Party
Type:	House of Commons
Council areas:	Na h-Eileanan Siar
EP constituency:	Scotland

Na h-Eileanan an Iar (formerly Western Isles) pron IPA: [nə'hɪlənən ən'jɪə(ɚ)] is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, created in 1918. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

History

The constituency was formed by merging together areas which were formerly within the Ross and Cromarty constituency and the Inverness-shire constituency.

Na h-Eileanan an Iar is derived from the Gaelic for Western Isles, which was the constituency's name prior to the 2005 general election. A similar constituency, called Western Isles, is used by the Scottish Parliament.

Boundaries

The constituency area is that of the Outer Hebrides, known also as Na h-Eileanan Siar, and the constituency has the smallest electorate in the United Kingdom, one-fifth of the size of the largest, the Isle of Wight, with the latter also being an island constituency. However the Isle of Wight is a substantially smaller parliamentary constituency in geographical terms. It has been suggested that Na h-Eileanan an Iar could be combined with the Orkney and Shetland constituency: the resulting combined electorate would still be well below the average constituency quota. Meanwhile the Scottish Boundary commission in 1980 originally proposed that the seat should be extended to include the Skye and Lochalsh areas, however this was overturned at a public enquiry. Generally, overriding considerations of sheer geographical size, a disparate population and of convenience for the MPs concerned as well as tradition and identity have tended to override the arguments about numerical imbalance. Furthermore, a change in the Boundary Commission's rules in 2000 added rule 3a which forbids Orkney or Shetland being combined with another council area.

Local government areas

When created the area of the constituency was divided between two local government areas, the counties of Ross and Cromarty and Inverness-shire. The division line was the Lewis-Harris boundary, with Lewis in Ross and Cromarty and Harris in Inverness-shire.

In 1975 the constituency area became also an island council area, known as the Western Isles council area. That same area became one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland in 1996. The council area is known also as Na h-Eileanan Siar.

Politics

The seat has been a two-way marginal between the Labour Party and the Scottish National Party for many years. In the 2005 UK general election, together with Blaenau Gwent, it was one of only two seats (outside Northern Ireland) in which the Conservative Party lost their deposit.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Donald Murray	Liberal
	1922	Sir William Dingwall Mitchell Cotts	National Liberal
	1923	Alexander Mackenzie Livingstone	Liberal
	1929	Thomas Ramsay	Liberal
	1931		National Liberal
	1935	Malcolm MacMillan	Labour
	1970	Donald Stewart	SNP
	1987	Calum MacDonald	Labour
	2005	Angus MacNeil	SNP

Election results

1910s

General Election 1918: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	%
	Liberal Party	Donald Murray	3,765	47.3
		Sir William Dingwall Mitchell Cotts	3,375	42.5
	Highland Land League	H. McCowan	809	10.2
Majority			390	4.8
Turnout			7,949	43.6

1920s

General Election 1922: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	%
	National Liberal Party	Sir William Dingwall Mitchell Cotts	6,177	54.1	+11.6
	Liberal Party	Donald Murray	5,238	45.9	+11.6
Majority			939	8.2	-1.4
Turnout			11,415	54.1	+3.4
	National Liberal Party gain from Liberal Party		Swing	6.5

General Election 1923: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	%
	Liberal Party	Alexander Livingstone	3,391	39.6	-6.3
	Conservative Party	W. S. Morrison	3,158	36.9	-6.3
		H. McCowan	2,011	23.5	N/A
Majority			233	2.7
Turnout			6,549	40.1	-5.5
	Liberal Party hold		Swing

General Election 1924: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	%
	Liberal Party	Alexander Livingstone	4,579	54.2	14.6
	Conservative Party	W. S. Morrison	2,318	28.6	14.6
	Labour Party	A. G. Burns	1,454	17.2	-8.3
Majority			2,161	25.6
Turnout			8,451	39.1	+22.9
	Liberal Party hold		Swing	11.5

General Election 1929: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	%
	Liberal Party	Thomas Ramsay	4,877	44.1	-10.1
	Labour Party	J. M. MacDiarmid	3,589	32.5	-10.1
	Conservative Party	I. M. Moffat-Pender	2,593	23.4	15.3
Majority			1,288	21.6	-5.2
Turnout			11,059	40.5	-14.0
	Liberal Party hold		Swing

1930s

General Election 1931: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	%
	National Liberal Party	Thomas Ramsay	5,793	54.8	+10.7
	Conservative Party	I.M. Moffatt Pender	4,785	45.2	+10.7
Majority			1,008	9.6	+21.8
Turnout			10,578	36.8	-2.0
	National Liberal Party hold		Swing

General Election 1935: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	%
	Labour Party	Malcolm Macmillan	5,421	41.0
	National Liberal Party	Thomas Ramsay	4,076	30.9
		A M MacEwan	3,704	28.1	-23.9
Majority			1,345	10.1
Turnout			12,947	46.8
	Labour Party gain from National Liberal Party		Swing

1940s

General Election 1945: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	%
	Labour Party	Malcolm Macmillan	5,914	45.7	+4.7
	Liberal Party	H. M. Sinclair	4,277	33.0	+4.7
	Conservative Party	Iain Macleod	2,756	21.3
Majority			1,637	12.7
Turnout			12,947	53.3	+2.6
	Labour Party hold		Swing

1950s

1960s

1970s

General Election 1979: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	%
		Donald Stewart	7,941	52.5
	Labour Party	A. Matheson	4,878	32.3
	Conservative Party	M. Morrison	1,600	10.6
	Liberal Party	N. MacLeod	700	4.6
Majority			3,063	20.3
Turnout				67.5
	hold		Swing

1980s

General Election 1983: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	%
		Donald Stewart	8,272	54.5
	Labour Party	B. D. H. Wilson	4,560	30.1
	Conservative Party	M. Morrison	1,460	9.6
	Liberal Party	N. MacLeod	876	5.8
Majority			3,712	24.5
Turnout				66.5
	hold		Swing

General Election 1987: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	%
	Labour Party	Calum MacDonald	7,041	42.7
		Ian Smith	4,701	28.5
	Social Democratic Party	Kenneth McIver	3,419	20.7
	Conservative Party	M. Morrison	1,336	8.1
Majority			2,340	14.2
Turnout				70.2
	Labour Party gain from		Swing

1990s

General Election 1992: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	%
	Labour Party	Calum MacDonald	7,664	47.8
		Frances MacFarlane	5,961	37.2
	Conservative Party	Robert Heany	1,362	8.5
	Liberal Democrats	Neil Mitchison	552	3.4
	Independent	A. Price	491	3.1
Majority			1,703	10.6
Turnout				70.4
	Labour Party hold		Swing

General Election 1997: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	%
	Labour Party	Calum MacDonald	8,955	55.6
		Anne Lorne Gillies	5,379	33.4
	Conservative Party	James McGrigor	1,071	6.6
	Liberal Democrats	Neil Mitchison	495	3.1
		Ralph Lionel	206	1.3
Majority			3,576	22.2	N/A
Turnout				70.1
	Labour Party hold		Swing

2000s

General Election 2001: Western Isles
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	%
	Labour Party	Calum MacDonald	5,924	45.0	−10.6
		Alasdair Nicholson	4,850	36.9	−10.6
	Conservative Party	Douglas Taylor	1,250	9.5	+3.5
	Liberal Democrats	John Horne	849	6.5	+2.8
		Joanne Telfer	286	2.2	+3.4
Majority			1,074	8.1	N/A
Turnout			13,159	60.6
	Labour Party hold		Swing

General Election 2005: Na h-Eileanan an Iar
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	%
		Angus MacNeil	6,213	44.9	+8.0
	Labour Party	Calum MacDonald	4,772	34.5	+8.0
	Liberal Democrats	Jean Davis	1,096	7.9	−10.5
		James Hargreaves	1,048	7.6	+1.4
	Conservative Party	Andy Maciver	610	4.4	N/A
		Joanne Telfer	97	0.7	−5.1
Majority			1,441	10.4	−1.5
Turnout			13,836	64.1
	gain from Labour Party		Swing	+9.3

See also