Banffshire and Buchan Coast
Constituency of the Scottish Parliament
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Banffshire and Buchan Coast (Gaelic: Siorrachd Bhanbh agus Oirthir Bhùchainn) is a county constituency of the Scottish Parliament covering parts of the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Moray.[2] It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. Under the additional-member electoral system used for elections to the Scottish Parliament, Banffshire and Buchan Coast is also one of ten constituencies in the North East Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members in addition to the ten constituency MSPs, producing a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.[3] The seat was created for the 2011 Scottish Parliament election.[4]
| Banffshire and Buchan Coast | |
|---|---|
| County constituency for the Scottish Parliament | |
| |
 Banffshire and Buchan Coast shown within the North East Scotland electoral region and the region shown within Scotland | |
| Electoral region | North East Scotland |
| Electorate | 61,591 (2022)[1] |
| Current constituency | |
| Created | 2011 |
| Party | SNP |
| MSP | Karen Adam |
| Council area | Aberdeenshire Moray |
| Created from | Banff and Buchan, Moray |
It has been held by Karen Adam of the Scottish National Party since the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.
Electoral region
The other nine constituencies of the North East Scotland region are: Aberdeen Central, Aberdeen Deeside and North Kincardine, Aberdeen Donside, Aberdeenshire East, Aberdeenshire West, Angus North and Mearns, Angus South, Dundee City East and Dundee City West.[3] The region covers all of the Aberdeen City council area, the Aberdeenshire council area, the Angus council area, the Dundee City council area and part of the Moray council area.[5]
Constituency boundaries and council area
The constituency covers parts of both Aberdeenshire and Moray. It is one of the five constituencies covering Aberdeenshire in the Scottish Parliament, alongside Aberdeenshire East, Aberdeenshire West, Aberdeen Deeside and North Kincardine, and Angus North and Mearns. The rest of Moray is represented by the Moray constituency.[6]
The seat was created following the first periodic review of Scottish Parliament boundaries in 2011, and was first contested at the 2011 Scottish Parliament election. It largely replaced the seat of Banff and Buchan which was abolished, and also includes areas that were formerly in the Gordon and Moray constituencies.[4] At the second periodic review of Scottish Parliament boundaries in 2025 the seat was altered to include the northern part of the central buchan ward. This change led to an addition of 10 electors to the constituency compared to the previous boundaries.[7]
The constituency comprises the following wards of Aberdeenshire Council and Moray Council:[2]
- Aberdeenshire:
- Banff and District (entire ward)
- Troup (entire ward)
- Fraserburgh and District (entire ward)
- Peterhead North and Rattray (entire ward)
- Central Buchan (shared with Aberdeenshire East)
- Peterhead South and Cruden (shared with Aberdeenshire East)
- Moray:
- Keith and Cullen (shared with Moray)
- Buckie (entire ward)
Member of the Scottish Parliament
| Election | Member | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Stewart Stevenson | SNP | |
| 2021 | Karen Adam | ||
Election results
2020s
| Party | Candidate | Constituency | Regional | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | ±% | Votes | % | ±% | |||
| SNP | Karen Adam[10][a] | 10,374 | ||||||
| Conservative | James Adams[11] | 6,348 | ||||||
| Labour | Brooke Ritchie | 1049 | ||||||
| Reform | Conrad Ritchie | 10,010 | ||||||
| Liberal Democrats | Leslie Tarr | 1,162 | ||||||
| Independent | N. McLellan | 555 | ||||||
| Advance UK | ||||||||
| AtLS | ||||||||
| ISP | ||||||||
| Independent Green Voice | ||||||||
| Scottish Family | ||||||||
| Green | ||||||||
| Scottish Socialist | ||||||||
| Workers Party | ||||||||
| Independent | Marie Boulton | |||||||
| Independent | Iris Leask | |||||||
| Majority | ||||||||
| Valid votes | ||||||||
| Invalid votes | ||||||||
| Turnout | ||||||||
| Party | Candidate | Constituency | Regional | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | ±% | Votes | % | ±% | |||
| SNP | Karen Adam | 14,920 | 45.2 |  9.9 |
12,919 | 39.1 | 12.3 | |
| Conservative | Mark Findlater | 14,148 | 42.9 |  10.8 |
13,130 | 39.7 | 10.5 | |
| Labour | Georgia Strachan | 2,169 | 6.6 | 1.7 |
2,225 | 6.7 | 0.4 | |
| Green | 1,167 | 3.5 | 0.5 | |||||
| Alba | 1,135 | 3.4 | New | |||||
| Liberal Democrats | Alison Simpson | 1,071 | 3.2 | 1.3 |
924 | 2.8 | 0.2 | |
| Scottish Family | 286 | 0.9 | New | |||||
| All for Unity | 231 | 0.7 | New | |||||
| Freedom Alliance (UK) | Jason Duncan | 347 | 1.1 | New | 189 | 0.6 | New | |
| Reform | 170 | 0.5 | New | |||||
| Independent Green Voice | 147 | 0.4 | New | |||||
| Restore Scotland | David McHutchon | 331 | 1.0 | New | 145 | 0.4 | New | |
| Abolish the Scottish Parliament | 139 | 0.4 | New | |||||
| UKIP | 86 | 0.3 | 3.5 | |||||
| Scottish Libertarian | 47 | 0.1 |  0.0 | |||||
| Independent | Laura Marshall | 35 | 0.1 | New | ||||
| Independent | Geoffrey Farquharson | 12 | 0.0 | New | ||||
| Renew | 12 | 0.0 | New | |||||
| Majority | 772 | 2.3 | 20.7 |
|||||
| Valid votes | 32,986 | 32,999 | ||||||
| Invalid votes | 89 | 74 | ||||||
| Turnout | 33,075 | 56.2 | 7.5 |
33,073 | 56.2 | 7.4 | ||
| SNP hold | Swing | 10.4 |
||||||
2010s
| Party | Candidate | Constituency | Regional | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | ±% | Votes | % | ±% | |||
| SNP | Stewart Stevenson[a] | 15,802 | 55.1 | 12.1 |
14,809 | 51.4 | 13.3 | |
| Conservative | Peter Chapman | 9,219 | 32.1 | 13.8 |
8,419 | 29.2 | 15.3 | |
| Labour | Nathan Morrison | 2,372 | 8.3 | 2.3 |
2,052 | 7.1 | 1.4 | |
| UKIP | 1,070 | 3.7 | 2.4 | |||||
| Liberal Democrats | David Evans | 1,290 | 4.5 | 0.7 |
868 | 3.0 | 0.6 | |
| Green | 858 | 3.0 | 1.0 | |||||
| Scottish Christian | 429 | 1.5 | 0.2 | |||||
| Solidarity | 113 | 0.4 | 0.3 | |||||
| National Front | 57 | 0.2 | 0.1 | |||||
| Scottish Libertarian | 52 | 0.2 | New | |||||
| Communist | 50 | 0.2 | New | |||||
| RISE | 31 | 0.1 | New | |||||
| Majority | 6,583 | 23.0 | 29.8 |
|||||
| Valid votes | 28,683 | 28,808 | ||||||
| Invalid votes | 135 | 42 | ||||||
| Turnout | 28,818 | 48.7 | 2.5 |
28,850 | 48.8 | 2.1 | ||
| SNP hold | Swing | 13.0 |
||||||
| Party | Candidate | Constituency | Region | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | ±% | Votes | % | ±% | |||
| SNP | Stewart Stevenson[a] | 16,812 | 67.2 | N/A | 16,185 | 64.7 | N/A | |
| Conservative | Michael Watt | 4,592 | 18.4 | N/A | 3,482 | 13.9 | N/A | |
| Labour | Alan Duffill | 2,642 | 10.6 | N/A | 2,115 | 8.5 | N/A | |
| Liberal Democrats | Galen Milne | 958 | 3.8 | N/A | 606 | 2.4 | N/A | |
| Green | 509 | 2.0 | N/A | |||||
| Scottish Christian | 435 | 1.7 | N/A | |||||
| All-Scotland Pensioners Party | 431 | 1.7 | N/A | |||||
| UKIP | 331 | 1.3 | N/A | |||||
| BNP | 269 | 1.1 | N/A | |||||
| Socialist Labour | 116 | 0.5 | N/A | |||||
| Scottish Socialist | 80 | 0.3 | N/A | |||||
| National Front | 68 | 0.3 | N/A | |||||
| Solidarity | 18 | 0.1 | N/A | |||||
| Angus Independents | 6 | 0.0 | N/A | |||||
| Others | 363 | 1.5 | N/A | |||||
| Majority | 12,220 | 48.8 | N/A | |||||
| Valid votes | 25,004 | 25,014 | ||||||
| Invalid votes | 95 | 83 | ||||||
| Turnout | 25,099 | 46.17 | N/A | 25,097 | 46.7 | N/A | ||
| SNP win (new seat) | ||||||||
Notes
| ||||||||