Edinburgh Pentlands (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Edinburgh Pentlands
Edinburgh Pentlands
	burgh constituency; for the Scottish Parliament
	Edinburgh Pentlands shown within the Lothian electoral region and the region shown within Scotland
Current constituency
Created	1999
Party	Scottish National Party
MSP	Gordon MacDonald
Council area	City of Edinburgh

Edinburgh Pentlands is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality (first past the post) method of election. It is one of nine constituencies in the Lothian 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.

Electoral region

The other eight constituencies of the Lothian region are Almond Valley, Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh Eastern, Edinburgh Northern and Leith, Edinburgh Southern, Edinburgh Western, Linlithgow and Midlothian North and Musselburgh

The region includes all of the City of Edinburgh council area, parts of the East Lothian council area, parts of the Midlothian council area and all of the West Lothian council area.

Constituency boundaries and council area

The City of Edinburgh is represented in the Scottish Parliament by five constituencies: Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh Eastern, Edinburgh Northern and Leith, Edinburgh Pentlands, Edinburgh Southern and Edinburgh Western.

The Edinburgh Pentlands constituency was created at the same time as the Scottish Parliament, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of an existing Westminster constituency. In 2005, however, Scottish Westminster (House of Commons) constituencies were mostly replaced with new constituencies.[1]

The newly formed Edinburgh Pentlands uses the following electoral wards:

In full: Pentland Hills, Colinton/Fairmilehead
In part: Sighthill/Gorgie shared with (Edinburgh Central)

Members of the Scottish Parliament

	Member	Party
1999	Iain Gray	Labour
2003	David McLetchie	Conservative
2011	Gordon MacDonald	Scottish National Party

Election results

2010s

2016 Scottish Parliament election: Edinburgh Pentlands[2][3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Gordon MacDonald	13,181	39.5	+2.2
	Conservative	Gordon Lindhurst	10,725	32.2	+0.8
	Labour	Blair Heary	7,811	23.4	-3.2
	Liberal Democrats	Emma Farthing-Sykes	1,636	4.9	+0.3
Majority			2,456	7.3	+1.4
Turnout			33,516	60.7	+3.1
	SNP hold		Swing

2011 Scottish Parliament election: Edinburgh Pentlands[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Gordon MacDonald	11,197	37.3	*N/A*
	Conservative	David McLetchie	9,439	31.4	N/A
	Labour	Ricky Henderson	7,993	26.6	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Simon Clark	1,420	4.6	N/A
Majority			1,578	5.9	N/A
Turnout			30,302	57.6	N/A
	SNP win (new boundaries)

2000s

2007 Scottish Parliament election: Edinburgh Pentlands[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David McLetchie	12,927	37.6	+0.4
	Labour	Sheila Gilmore	8,402	24.4	-6.5
	SNP	Ian McKee	8,234	23.9	+7.1
	Liberal Democrats	Simon Clark	4,814	14.0	+2.2
Majority			4,525	13.2	+6.9
Turnout			34,377
	Conservative hold		Swing

2003 Scottish Parliament election: Edinburgh Pentlands
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David McLetchie	12,420	37.2	+8.3
	Labour	Iain Gray	10,309	30.9	−5.3
	SNP	Ian McKee	5,620	16.8	−5.4
	Liberal Democrats	Simon Clark	3,943	11.8	−0.9
	Scottish Socialist	Frank O'Donnell	1,090	3.3	New
Majority			2,111	6.3	N/A
Turnout			33,382	57.1	−8.9
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+6.8

1990s

1999 Scottish Parliament election: Edinburgh Pentlands
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Iain Gray	14,343	36.2	*N/A*
	Conservative	David McLetchie	11,458	28.9	N/A
	SNP	Stewart Gibb	8,770	22.2	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Ian Gibson	5,029	12.7	N/A
Majority			2,885	7.3	N/A
Turnout			39,600	66.0	N/A
	Labour win (new seat)

Footnotes

See The 5th Periodical Report of the Boundary Commission for Scotland Archived September 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/7586/pentlands_msp_constituency_results_2016
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/7590/lothian_region_full_results_2016
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/download/213/scottish_parliamentary_elections_results_2011
Sub-constituency election results for the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections - data Archived 6 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine- Scotland Office; 30 April 2008; retrieved 5 April 2011

« 1999–2011 « Electoral regions and constituencies of the Scottish Parliament 2011–
Central Scotland	Airdrie and Shotts Coatbridge and Chryston Cumbernauld and Kilsyth East Kilbride Falkirk East Falkirk West Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse Motherwell and Wishaw Uddingston and Bellshill
Glasgow	Glasgow Anniesland Glasgow Cathcart Glasgow Kelvin Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn Glasgow Pollok Glasgow Provan Glasgow Shettleston Glasgow Southside Rutherglen
Highlands and Islands	Argyll and Bute Caithness, Sutherland and Ross Inverness and Nairn Moray Na h-Eileanan an Iar Orkney Shetland Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch
Lothian	Almond Valley Edinburgh Central Edinburgh Eastern Edinburgh Northern and Leith Edinburgh Pentlands Edinburgh Southern Edinburgh Western Linlithgow Midlothian North and Musselburgh
Mid Scotland and Fife	Clackmannanshire and Dunblane Cowdenbeath Dunfermline Kirkcaldy Mid Fife and Glenrothes North East Fife Perthshire North Perthshire South and Kinross-shire Stirling
North East Scotland	Aberdeen Central Aberdeen Donside Aberdeen South and North Kincardine Aberdeenshire East Aberdeenshire West Angus North and Mearns Angus South Banffshire and Buchan Coast Dundee City East Dundee City West
South Scotland	Ayr Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley Clydesdale Dumfriesshire East Lothian Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire Galloway and West Dumfries Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley Midlothian South, Tweeddale, and Lauderdale
West Scotland	Clydebank and Milngavie Cunninghame North Cunninghame South Dumbarton Eastwood Greenock and Inverclyde Paisley Renfrewshire North and West Renfrewshire South Strathkelvin and Bearsden

Electoral regions and constituencies of the Scottish Parliament 1999–2011 » 2011– »
Central Scotland	Airdrie and Shotts Coatbridge and Chryston Cumbernauld and Kilsyth East Kilbride Falkirk East Falkirk West Hamilton North and Bellshill Hamilton South Kilmarnock and Loudoun Motherwell and Wishaw
Glasgow	Glasgow Anniesland Glasgow Baillieston Glasgow Cathcart Glasgow Govan Glasgow Kelvin Glasgow Maryhill Glasgow Pollok Glasgow Rutherglen Glasgow Shettleston Glasgow Springburn
Highlands and Islands	Argyll and Bute Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber Moray Orkney Ross, Skye and Inverness West Shetland Western Isles
Lothians	Edinburgh Central Edinburgh East and Musselburgh Edinburgh North and Leith Edinburgh Pentlands Edinburgh South Edinburgh West Linlithgow Livingston Midlothian
Mid Scotland and Fife	Central Fife Dunfermline East Dunfermline West Kirkcaldy North East Fife North Tayside Ochil Perth Stirling
North East Scotland	Aberdeen Central Aberdeen North Aberdeen South Angus Banff and Buchan Dundee East Dundee West Gordon West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine
South of Scotland	Ayr Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley Clydesdale Cunninghame South Dumfries East Lothian Galloway and Upper Nithsdale Roxburgh and Berwickshire Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale
West of Scotland	Clydebank and Milngavie Cunninghame North Dumbarton Eastwood Greenock and Inverclyde Paisley North Paisley South Strathkelvin and Bearsden West Renfrewshire