Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (UK Parliament constituency)

Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in the south of Scotland within the Scottish Borders council area. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system of voting.

Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
County constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk in Scotland
Subdivisions of ScotlandScottish Borders
Electorate73,191[1]
Major settlementsGalashiels, Stow of Wedale, Tweedbank
Current constituency
Created2005
Member of ParliamentJohn Lamont (Conservative)
Number of membersOne
Created fromTweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, and Roxburgh and Berwickshire

The constituency name comes from the three counties it covers; Berwickshire, Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire.

A mostly rural constituency, it includes the towns of Coldstream, Duns, Eyemouth, Galashiels, Hawick, Jedburgh, Kelso, Melrose and Selkirk.

Boundaries

As created by the Fifth Review of the Boundary Commission for Scotland. The Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk constituency covers part of the Scottish Borders council area. The rest of the council area is covered by the Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale constituency, which also covers part of the Dumfries and Galloway council area and part of the South Lanarkshire council area.

The Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk constituency is predominantly rural, and incorporates the electoral wards of:

  • In full: Hawick and Hermitage, Selkirkshire, Hawick and Denholm, Jedburgh and District, Kelso and District, Mid Berwickshire, East Berwickshire, Leaderdale and Melrose, Galashiels and District
  • In part: Tweeddale East

History

Michael Moore held the seat from its creation in 2005, and was MP for the predecessor seat of Tweeddale, Ettrick & Lauderdale from 1997-2005. The seat and its predecessor seats (Roxburgh and Berwickshire and Tweeddale, Ettrick & Lauderdale) had a strong Liberal Party presence since the 1960s, with former Liberal leader David Steel having represented the seat from 1965-1997. Historically, the Conservative Party has been the main challenger to the seat, and they currently hold the equivalent Holyrood seat. At the 2015 general election, Moore and the Liberal Democrats were pushed into third place in the constituency and the seat was narrowly won by Calum Kerr of the Scottish National Party over the Conservative candidate, John Lamont by 328 votes.

At the 2017 snap election, Lamont (who contested the seat for the fourth consecutive election) won the seat from Calum Kerr of the SNP by 11,060 votes - polling more votes than any other candidate in Scotland, and making it the safest Conservative seat in Scotland.

Two years later at the 2019 general election, held in the wake of parliamentary deadlock and Brexit negotiations, the Conservatives called another election and achieved their best national result since 1987 and won a comfortable majority of 80 seats at the election; with Lamont being re-elected as MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk- albeit with a reduced majority of 5,148 votes due to a swing towards the SNP and Liberal Democrats.

Members of Parliament
ElectionMember[2] Party
2005 Michael Moore Liberal Democrat
2015 Calum Kerr SNP
2017 John Lamont Conservative

Elections


Elections in the 2010s
2019 general election: Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk[3][4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative John Lamont 25,747 48.4 -5.5
SNP Calum Kerr 20,599 38.8 +6.0
Liberal Democrats Jenny Marr 4,287 8.1 +3.4
Labour Ian Davidson 2,513 4.7 -3.9
Majority 5,148 9.6 -11.5
Turnout 53,146 71.3 -0.2
Conservative hold Swing -5.7
2017 general election: Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk[5][6][7][8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative John Lamont 28,213 53.9 +17.9
SNP Calum Kerr 17,153 32.8 -3.8
Labour Co-op Ian Davidson 4,519 8.6 +3.7
Liberal Democrats Caroline Burgess 2,482 4.7 -14.0
Majority 11,060 21.1 N/A
Turnout 52,367 71.5 -2.7
Conservative gain from SNP Swing +10.8
See also: Opinion polling in United Kingdom constituencies, 2010–15 § Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
2015 general election: Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk[9][10]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SNP Calum Kerr[11] 20,145 36.6 +27.4
Conservative John Lamont[12] 19,817 36.0 +2.2
Liberal Democrats Michael Moore[12] 10,294 18.7 −26.7
Labour Kenryck Jones[13] 2,700 4.9 −5.3
UKIP Peter Neilson[13] 1,316 2.4 +1.2
Scottish Green Pauline Stewart[14] 631 1.1 New
Independent Jesse Rae[13] 135 0.2 New
Majority 328 0.6 N/A
Turnout 55,038 74.2 +7.8
SNP gain from Liberal Democrats Swing +27.1
Michael Moore.
2010 general election: Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk[15][16]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Michael Moore 22,230 45.4 +3.4
Conservative John Lamont 16,555 33.8 +5.0
Labour Ian Miller 5,003 10.2 −5.7
SNP Paul Wheelhouse 4,497 9.2 +0.6
UKIP Sherry Fowler 595 1.2 −0.1
Scottish Jacobite Chris Black 134 0.3 New
Majority 5,675 11.6 -1.4
Turnout 49,014 66.4 +2.1
Liberal Democrats hold Swing −0.7

Elections in the 2000s
2005 general election: Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Michael Moore 18,993 41.8 -5.0
Conservative John Lamont 13,092 28.8 +6.8
Labour Sam Held 7,206 15.9 -1.0
SNP Aileen Orr 3,885 8.6 -2.8
Liberal John Hein 916 2.0 +1.6
Scottish Socialist Graeme McIver 695 1.5 ±0.0
UKIP Peter Neilson 601 1.3 +0.3
Majority 5,901 13.0 N/A
Turnout 45,388 63.3 N/A
Liberal Democrats win (new seat)

References
  1. Hislop, Kevin. "UK Parliamentary elections results". www.scotborders.gov.uk.
  2. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 2)
  3. "Candidates announced for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk County Constituency". Scottish Borders Council. Scottish Borders Council. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  4. "Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  5. "Tory MSP to quit Holyrood to stand for Westminster". 25 April 2017 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  6. Mackay, Colin (24 April 2017). "Former Pollock MP Ian Davidson going for Berwickshire Roxburgh & Selkirk". Twitter.
  7. "General Election: SNP reselects 54 MPs". www.scotsman.com.
  8. "John Lamont to stand in June's general election". Border Telegraph.
  9. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-08-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) 9Aug15
  11. Calum Kerr Archived 2015-04-28 at the Wayback Machine, Biography on SNP website, retrieved March 2015
  12. "UK ELECTION RESULTS". electionresults.blogspot.co.uk.
  13. "Candidates for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk in the 2015 UK General Election". yournextmp.com. Archived from the original on 2015-05-18.
  14. "SCOTTISH GREENS CONFIRM BIGGEST SLATE OF WESTMINSTER CANDIDATES". scottishgreens.org.uk.
  15. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  16. "BBC News - Election 2010 - Constituency - Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk". bbc.co.uk.
  17. "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
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