Paisley and Renfrewshire South
UK Parliament constituency (since 2005)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paisley and Renfrewshire South is a constituency of the House of Commons, located in Renfrewshire, Scotland to the southwest of Glasgow. It elects one member of Parliament at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system of voting and has been represented since 2024 by Johanna Baxter of Scottish Labour.
| Paisley and Renfrewshire South | |
|---|---|
| County constituency for the House of Commons | |
Paisley and Renfrewshire South shown within Scotland. | |
| Subdivisions of Scotland | Renfrewshire |
| Electorate | 69,813 (March 2020)[1] |
| Major settlements | Paisley, Johnstone, Kilbarchan, Howwood, Lochwinnoch |
| Current constituency | |
| Created | 2005 |
| Member of Parliament | Johanna Baxter (Labour) |
| Created from | Paisley South, Paisley North, and Renfrewshire West |
Boundaries
2005–2024: Under the Fifth Review of UK Parliament constituencies, this seat was created for the 2005 general election from the bulk of the former Paisley South seat, with minor additions from neighbouring constituencies.[2] Covering the southern portion of the Renfrewshire council area, the constituency includes around half of Paisley, as well as the smaller town of Johnstone and the villages of Kilbarchan and Elderslie. The remainder of the seat is more rural, containing the villages of Lochwinnoch, Howwood, several hamlets and farmland. The constituency also contains the Gleniffer Braes Country Park to the south and Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park to the west, notable for Castle Semple Loch.[3]
2024–present: Further to the completion of the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, the small town of Linwood and village of Brookfield was added to the constituency, alongside some minor changes in Paisley. The redrawn seat was contested for the first time at the 2024 general election.[3]
The seat is defined as comprising the following wards or part wards of Renfrewshire Council:[4]
- In full: Paisley East and Central; Paisley Southeast; Paisley Southwest; Johnstone South and Elderslie; Johnstone North, Kilbarchan, Howwood and Lochwinnoch.
- In part: Paisley Northwest (southern areas comprising about 55% of the electorate); Houston, Crosslee and Linwood (southeastern areas including the communities of Linwood and Brookfield).
Members of Parliament
The constituency's first MP was Douglas Alexander, who had held the seat since its creation in 2005 and its predecessor Paisley South since 1997. Alexander was the Shadow Foreign Secretary from 2011 until he was defeated at the 2015 general election, and had previously held Cabinet posts such as Transport Secretary and Scottish Secretary (2006–07; joint), and International Development Secretary (2007–10). He was subsequently elected as MP for Lothian East at the 2024 general election.
When SNP candidate Mhairi Black gained the seat in May 2015, she was 20 years and 237 days old, making her the youngest Member of Parliament (MP) elected to the House of Commons since at least the Reform Act 1832, replacing William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam; who was 20 years and 11 months old when elected in 1832.[5] She subsequently held the seat at the 2017[6] and 2019 general elections.[7] On 4 July 2023, Black announced that she would be standing down as an MP at the next general election.[8]
| Election | Member | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Douglas Alexander | Labour | |
| 2015 | Mhairi Black | SNP | |
| 2024 | Johanna Baxter | Labour | |
Elections
Elections in the 2020s
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Johanna Baxter | 19,583 | 47.4 | +21.6 | |
| SNP | Jacqueline Cameron | 13,056 | 31.6 | −18.2 | |
| Reform | Jim McIlroy | 2,956 | 7.2 | New | |
| Conservative | Alec Leishman | 2,219 | 5.4 | −12.8 | |
| Green | Athol Bond | 1,724 | 4.2 | New | |
| Liberal Democrats | Jack Clark | 1,315 | 3.2 | −3.0 | |
| Independent | Paul Mack | 317 | 0.8 | New | |
| Freedom Alliance | Mark Niven Turnbull | 113 | 0.3 | New | |
| Majority | 6,527 | 15.8 | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 41,283 | 57.7 | −8.3 | ||
| Registered electors | 71,574 | ||||
| Labour gain from SNP | Swing | +19.9 | |||
Elections in the 2010s
| 2019 notional result [a] [11] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Vote | % | |
| SNP | 22,933 | 49.8 | |
| Labour | 11,910 | 25.8 | |
| Conservative | 8,366 | 18.2 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 2,869 | 6.2 | |
| Majority | 11,023 | 23.9 | |
| Turnout | 46,078 | 66.0 | |
| Electorate | 69,813 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SNP | Mhairi Black | 21,637 | 50.2 | +9.5 | |
| Labour | Moira Ramage | 10,958 | 25.4 | −9.2 | |
| Conservative | Mark Dougan | 7,571 | 17.6 | −1.9 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Jack Clark | 2,918 | 6.8 | +3.6 | |
| Majority | 10,679 | 24.8 | +18.7 | ||
| Turnout | 43,084 | 66.9 | −1.1 | ||
| SNP hold | Swing | +9.4 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SNP | Mhairi Black | 16,964 | 40.7 | −10.2 | |
| Labour | Alison Dowling | 14,423 | 34.6 | −4.0 | |
| Conservative | Amy Thomson | 8,122 | 19.5 | +11.9 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Eileen McCartin | 1,327 | 3.2 | +1.0 | |
| Independent | Paul Mack | 876 | 2.1 | New | |
| Majority | 2,541 | 6.1 | −6.2 | ||
| Turnout | 41,712 | 68.0 | −7.4 | ||
| SNP hold | Swing | −3.1 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SNP | Mhairi Black | 23,548 | 50.9 | +32.8 | |
| Labour | Douglas Alexander | 17,864 | 38.6 | −21.0 | |
| Conservative | Fraser Galloway | 3,526 | 7.6 | −2.3 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Eileen McCartin | 1,010 | 2.2 | −7.3 | |
| Scottish Socialist | Sandra Webster | 278 | 0.6 | −0.3 | |
| Majority | 5,684 | 12.3 | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 46,226 | 75.4 | +10.0 | ||
| SNP gain from Labour | Swing | +26.9 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Douglas Alexander | 23,842 | 59.6 | +7.0 | |
| SNP | Andrew Doig | 7,228 | 18.1 | +0.5 | |
| Conservative | Gordon McCaskill | 3,979 | 9.9 | +1.5 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Ashay Ghai | 3,812 | 9.5 | −8.1 | |
| Independent | Paul Mack | 513 | 1.3 | New | |
| Scottish Socialist | Jimmy Kerr | 375 | 0.9 | −1.2 | |
| Independent | William Hendry | 249 | 0.6 | New | |
| Majority | 16,614 | 41.5 | +6.5 | ||
| Turnout | 39,998 | 65.4 | +2.5 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | +3.3 | |||
Elections in the 2000s
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Douglas Alexander | 19,904 | 52.6 | −4.4 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Eileen McCartin | 6,672 | 17.6 | +8.0 | |
| SNP | Andrew Doig | 6,653 | 17.6 | −3.3 | |
| Conservative | Thomas Begg | 3,188 | 8.4 | 0.0 | |
| Scottish Socialist | Iain Hogg | 789 | 2.1 | −0.7 | |
| Pride in Paisley Party | Gordon Matthew | 381 | 1.0 | New | |
| Independent | Robert Rodgers | 166 | 0.4 | New | |
| Socialist Labour | Howard Broadbent | 107 | 0.3 | New | |
| Majority | 13,232 | 35.0 | |||
| Turnout | 37,860 | 62.9 | |||
| Labour win (new seat) | |||||
Notes
- Estimate of the 2019 general election result as if the revised boundaries recommended under the 2023 boundary review were in place