Perthshire North (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Perth and North Perthshire (UK Parliament constituency).

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Constituency
Current constituency

Perthshire North is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality (first past the post) method of election. Also, it is one of nine constituencies in the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

For the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, the old constituency of Perth was abolished and replaced by Perthshire North and Perthshire South and Kinross-shire.

Electoral region

See also: Mid Scotland and Fife (Scottish Parliament electoral region)

The other eight constituencies of the Mid Scotland and Fife region are Clackmannanshire and Dunblane, Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, Mid Fife and Glenrothes, North East Fife, Perthshire South and Kinross-shire and Stirling.

The region covers all of the Clackmannanshire council area, all of the Fife council area, all of the Perth and Kinross council area and all of the Stirling council area.

Constituency boundaries and council area

The constituency was created at the same time as the Scottish Parliament, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of a pre-existing Westminster (House of Commons) constituency. The area has been covered by Westminster constituencies with differing names but similar boundaries since 1918, but in 2005 Scottish Westminster constituencies were mostly replaced with new constituencies. Most of the Perth Westminster constituency was merged into Ochil and South Perthshire. Part, including the town of Perth, was merged into Perth and North Perthshire.

Perth and Kinross is represented in the Scottish Parliament by two constituencies, Perthshire North and Perthshire South and Kinross-shire.

The electoral wards used in the creation of Perthshire North were:

• In full: Carse of Gowrie, Strathmore, Blairgowrie and Glens, Highland, Strathtay, Perth City Centre

Constituency profile

In Westminster elections the area was historically Conservative, and Conservatives have held seats representing the area during most of the period since World War II. The Scottish National Party (SNP) has also had a strong presence, and the SNP has contested every parliamentary election in the area in the same post-war period. In the Perth and Kinross Westminster by-election in 1995, the SNP's Roseanna Cunningham won the Perth and Kinross Westminster seat from the Conservatives with an 11.5% swing. She then held the seat in the 1997 United Kingdom general election and went on to be elected to Holyrood in the 1999 Scottish Parliament election, and to be re-elected in the 2003 Scottish Parliament election. Since Cunningham's election in 1995, the area has consistently voted SNP.

Current Member of the Scottish Parliament

Election		Member	Party
style="background-color: Template:Scottish National Party/meta/color" |	2011	John Swinney	Scottish National Party

Election results

Scottish Parliamentary election, 2011

Scottish Parliament election, 2011: Perthshire North
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	SNP	Y John Swinney		18,219	60.83	+10.48	15,908	52.89
	Conservative	Murdo Fraser		7,866	26.26	-2.59	7,491	24.91
	Labour	Pete Cheema		2,672	8.92	+0.42	2,690	8.94
	Liberal Democrats	Victor Clements		1,196	3.99	-7.81	1,121	3.73
	Scottish Green						1,359	4.52
	Scottish Senior Citizens						440	1.46
	UKIP						334	1.11
	BNP						187	0.62
	Scottish Christian						110	0.37
	Socialist Labour						97	0.32
	CPA						88	0.29
	Scottish Socialist						74	0.25
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Independent (politician)/meta/color; width: 5px;" |	Independent - Andrew Rodger						42	0.14
	Solidarity						17	0.06
Informal votes				117			117
Total valid votes				29,953			30,075
	SNP hold		Majority	10,353	34.56

Scottish Liberal Democrats polled under 5% and thus lost their deposit

Scottish Parliament election, 2007 Notional Result: Perthshire North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP		15,318	50.3
	Conservative		8,776	28.8
	Liberal Democrats		3,590	11.8
	Labour		2,585	8.5
	Others		155	0.5
Majority			6,542	21.5
	SNP hold		Swing