North Ayrshire and Arran

The constituency was created by the Fifth Review of UK Parliament constituencies for the 2005 general election and is entirely within the North Ayrshire council area. Part of the same council area is covered by the Central Ayrshire constituency.

The constituency boundaries were defined in accordance with the ward structure in place on 30 November 2004. Under the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the boundaries were unchanged.^[2]

Further to reviews of local government ward boundaries which came into effect in 2007 and 2017, but did not affect the parliamentary boundaries, the contents of the constituency are now defined as comprising the following wards or part wards of North Ayrshire Council, as they existed on 1 December 2020: ^[3]

• In full: Stevenston, Ardrossan and Arran, Dalry and West Kilbride, Kilbirnie and Beith, North Coast and Cumbraes, Saltcoats.
• In part: Kilwinning (all except small area in southeast of ward).

The boundaries of North Ayrshire and Arran extend to, and include, Skelmorlie in the north of the council area, Stevenston in the south, Beith in the east, and the islands of Arran and Cumbrae in the west.

The seat takes in many towns and villages which have some very affluent areas and more working class areas, The towns of Skelmorlie, Largs, Fairlie and West Kilbride in the north are affluent commuter towns, while Ardrossan, Saltcoats, and Stevenston in the south are rather more industrial, However, regeneration is taking place at Ardrossan Harbour and there has been a rapid increase in new build housing in recent years. Inland, the seat takes in the Garnock valley towns of Dalry, Beith and Kilbirnie, once a centre of steel and textile production long since gone. Tourism is the main industry on Arran and Cumbrae, however the number of holiday homes on the latter has begun to squeeze locals out of the housing market. The seat has two nuclear power stations, Hunterston A nuclear power station (currently being decommissioned) and Hunterston B nuclear power station, as well as a windfarm at Ardrossan. Kilwinning which is North Ayrshire's second largest town in the south of the constituency has many very affluent areas as well as working class areas but while the constituency maybe seen as working class as a whole, It is considered mixed due to the wealthy and working class areas within it

The constituency of North Ayrshire was created in 1868 and was much larger than the present constituency, as it also included the towns of Irvine and Kilmarnock. It returned various Liberal, Liberal Unionist and Conservative MP's, the most well known of whom being Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston, a general in the First World War who served as MP from 1916 to 1935 first for North Ayrshire and then for Bute and Northern Ayrshire which was created in 1918. Another well-known MP was Sir Fitzroy Maclean, a major-general in the Second World War who was rumoured to be one of Ian Fleming's inspirations for James Bond.

In 1983, the Cunninghame North constituency was created. From 1911 to 1987, the constituencies containing north Ayrshire returned either Conservative Party or Unionist Party MP's until the 1987 general election when the constituency was lost to the Labour Party. Labour held the seat until the 2015 general election when it was won by the SNP. In the 2017 general election the SNP held the seat with a much reduced majority, with the Conservatives more than doubling their vote share, but this was partially reversed in 2019. At the 2024 election, Labour recaptured the seat from third place, as both the SNP and Conservative vote share slumped.