Stirling (UK Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Stirling (Scottish Parliament constituency).

For the 1708–1918 constituency, see Stirling Burghs (UK Parliament constituency).

Stirling
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Stirling in Scotland
Subdivisions of Scotland	Stirling
Major settlements	Bridge of Allan, Crianlarich, Dunblane, Stirling, Tyndrum
Current constituency
Created	1983
Member of Parliament	Alyn Smith (SNP)
Seats	One
Created from	Stirling, Falkirk & Grangemouth, Stirlingshire West and Kinross & West Perthshire

Stirling is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat will be expanded into Strathallan in Perth and Kinross council. As a consequence, it will be renamed Stirling and Strathallan, to be first contested at the next general election.

Boundaries

1983–1997: The Stirling District electoral divisions of Airthrey, Bannockburn, Castle, Dounebraes, Menteith, Queensland, St Ninians, Strathendrick, Viewforth, and Wallace.

1997–2005: The Stirling District electoral divisions of Bannockburn, Castle, Dounebraes, Menteith, Queensland, St Ninians, Strathendrick, Viewforth, and Wallace.

2005–present: The Stirling council area.

The constituency covers the whole of the Stirling council area. Most of the area is rural, which has tended to vote Conservative, but there are some large towns in the East, most notably Stirling itself, which used to vote Labour, but has now moved towards SNP. A similar constituency, also called Stirling, is used by the Scottish Parliament.

History

The area covered by the modern constituency was first represented in the British House of Commons in consequence of the Act of Union 1707 in 1708. The county town of Stirling was represented as part of Stirling Burghs and the county was represented by Stirlingshire, each returning one member.

In 1918, Stirling Burghs was abolished and Stirling was then represented by the Stirling & Falkirk Burghs and from 1974 Stirling, Falkirk & Grangemouth constituencies. Along with Clackmannanshire the county was meanwhile represented by Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire and Stirling and Clackmannan Western (later Stirlingshire West).

The modern constituency of Stirling was established in 1983. In 2005 the west portion of Ochil was moved into Stirling.

Constituency profile and voting patterns

Constituency profile

The seat is large, in Central Scotland and covers the Stirling council area.

Its population is concentrated around the historic City of Stirling and surrounding areas of Bannockburn, Bridge of Allan and Dunblane on its eastern fringes around the River Forth and its lower tributaries. This area consists of a mixture of Conservative-leaning suburbs to the north and west, such as Bridge of Allan and Dunblane and the Stirling suburbs of Cambusbarron, Kings Park and Torbrex, and somewhat more secessionist and poorer SNP or Labour-voting areas such as Raploch and south-east Stirling, in addition to Bannockburn, and the villages of Cowie, Fallin and Plean south-east of the city.

Boundaries stretch up to the west following the Valleys of the River Forth and Teith, running up into the wooded glens of the Trossachs on the eastern side of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, such as the more sparsely populated eastern shore of Loch Lomond, and it takes in a variety of fresh water lochs, such as Loch Katrine and Loch Venachar.

A number of small villages dot the corridors of the A84, A85 and A811 roads, including Callander, widely recognised as the gateway to the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, and more widely as the gateway to the Scottish Highlands. The scenic areas mentioned have proven especially rich territory for successful Conservative candidates and campaigns, hosting many retirees and wealthy investors.

Voting patterns

When the Stirling constituency was first created for the 1983 general election, combining northern elements of the West Stirlingshire constituency with the town of Stirling from the Stirling, Falkirk and Grangemouth constituency and southern elements of the old Kinross and West Perthshire constituency it was thought of as a fairly safe Conservative seat, with Michael Forsyth winning the seat with a majority of 5,133 votes. It became a tight Labour-Conservative marginal in 1987, and again in 1992, being retained by Michael Forsyth with less than 1,000 votes at both elections.

Labour gained Stirling as part of their landslide victory in 1997, then held the seat and it's coterminous constituency of Stirling in the Scottish Parliament, usually with a majority of over 10% of the vote; until the SNP's breakthrough ten years later in 2007. Stirling remained under Labour's control at the 2010 general election; however, it was gained by Steven Paterson of the Scottish National Party in what was landslide victory for the SNP across Scotland in 2015. More recently, the Conservative Party have made gains in the area, coming second in the overlapping constituency of Stirling in the Scottish Parliament, and taking more votes than the SNP at the 2017 Stirling Council election. At the 2017 general election, Stephen Kerr of the Conservatives defeated Paterson by a narrow majority of 148 votes, becoming the first elected Conservative MP for Stirling in 25 years. Kerr was subsequently defeated by Alyn Smith in 2019.

Stirling voted against Scottish independence in 2014 on an above-average margin of 59.8% "No" 40.2% "Yes". At the European Union membership referendum on 23 June 2016, an above-average margin of 67.7% of the electorate in Stirling voted for the United Kingdom to remain a member of the European Union with 32.3% voting for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1983	Michael Forsyth	Conservative
	1997	Dame Anne McGuire	Labour
	2015	Steven Paterson	SNP
	2017	Stephen Kerr	Conservative
	2019	Alyn Smith	SNP

Elections

Elections of the 2010s

General election 2019: Stirling

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Alyn Smith	26,895	51.1	+14.3
	Conservative	Stephen Kerr	17,641	33.5	−3.6
	Labour	Mary-Kate Ross	4,275	8.1	−14.0
	Liberal Democrats	Fayzan Rehman	2,867	5.4	+2.0
	Scottish Green	Bryan Quinn	942	1.8	New
Majority			9,254	17.6	N/A
Turnout			52,620	76.8	+2.5
	SNP gain from Conservative		Swing	+9.0

This was the largest increase in the SNP's vote share at the 2019 general election.

General election 2017: Stirling

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Stephen Kerr	18,291	37.1	+14.0
	SNP	Steven Paterson	18,143	36.8	−8.8
	Labour	Chris Kane	10,902	22.1	−3.4
	Liberal Democrats	Wendy Chamberlain	1,683	3.4	+0.7
	Women's Equality	Kirstein Rummery	337	0.7	New
Majority			148	0.3	N/A
Turnout			49,356	74.3	−3.2
	Conservative gain from SNP		Swing	+11.4

General election 2015: Stirling

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Steven Paterson	23,783	45.6	+28.3
	Labour	Johanna Boyd	13,303	25.5	−16.3
	Conservative	Stephen Kerr	12,051	23.1	−0.8
	Scottish Green	Mark Ruskell	1,606	3.1	+1.5
	Liberal Democrats	Elisabeth Wilson	1,392	2.7	−11.8
Majority			10,480	20.1	N/A
Turnout			52,135	77.5	+6.7
	SNP gain from Labour		Swing	+22.3

General election 2010: Stirling

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Anne McGuire	19,558	41.8	+5.8
	Conservative	Bob H. Dalrymple	11,204	23.9	−1.2
	SNP	Alison J. Lindsay	8,091	17.3	+4.7
	Liberal Democrats	Graham Reed	6,797	14.5	−6.2
	Scottish Green	Mark Ruskell	746	1.6	−1.4
	UKIP	Paul Henke	395	0.8	+0.3
Majority			8,354	17.9	+7.0
Turnout			46,791	70.8	+3.1
	Labour hold		Swing	+3.5

Elections of the 2000s

General election 2005: Stirling

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Anne McGuire	15,729	36.0	−7.0
	Conservative	Stephen Kerr	10,962	25.1	+1.4
	Liberal Democrats	Kelvin Holdsworth	9,052	20.7	+9.2
	SNP	Frances McGlinchey	5,503	12.6	−4.5
	Scottish Green	Richard Illingworth	1,302	3.0	+0.9
	Scottish Socialist	Rowland Sheret	458	1.0	−1.7
	Independent	James McDonald	261	0.6	New
	Christian Vote	Michael Willis	215	0.5	New
	UKIP	Matthew Desmond	209	0.5	New
Majority			4,767	10.9	-6.5
Turnout			43,691	67.7	+2.8
	Labour hold		Swing	−4.2

General election 2001: Stirling

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Anne McGuire	15,175	42.2	−5.2
	Conservative	Geoff Mawdsley	8,901	24.8	−7.7
	SNP	Fiona Macaulay	5,877	16.4	+3.0
	Liberal Democrats	Clive Freeman	4,208	11.7	+5.5
	Scottish Socialist	Charles Mullen	1,012	2.8	New
	Scottish Green	Mark Ruskell	757	2.1	New
Majority			6,274	17.4	+2.5
Turnout			35,930	67.7	−14.1
	Labour hold		Swing	+1.2

Elections of the 1990s

General election 1997: Stirling

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Anne McGuire	20,382	47.4	+8.8
	Conservative	Michael Forsyth	13,971	32.5	−6.7
	SNP	Ewan Dow	5,752	13.4	−1.1
	Liberal Democrats	Alistair Tough	2,675	6.2	+0.5
	UKIP	William McMurdo	154	0.4	New
Majority			6,411	14.9	N/A
Turnout			42,958	81.8	−0.5
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	+7.8

General election 1992: Stirling

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Forsyth	19,174	40.0	+1.7
	Labour	Catherine Phillips	18,471	38.5	+2.3
	SNP	Gerald Fisher	6,558	13.7	+3.0
	Liberal Democrats	William Robertson	3,337	7.0	−7.8
	Scottish Green	William Thomson	342	0.7	New
	Monster Raving Loony	Ross Sharp	68	0.1	New
Majority			703	1.5	-0.6
Turnout			47,950	82.3	+2.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections of the 1980s

General election 1987: Stirling

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Forsyth	17,591	38.3	−1.7
	Labour	Michael Connarty	16,643	36.2	+8.3
	Liberal	Ian McFarlane	6,804	14.8	−9.1
	SNP	Iain Lawson	4,897	10.7	+2.5
Majority			948	2.1	-10.0
Turnout			45,935	79.4	+3.7
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election 1983: Stirling

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Forsyth	17,039	40.0	+2.8
	Labour	Michael Connarty	11,906	27.9	-7.7
	Liberal	Ross Finnie	10,174	23.9	+12.6
	SNP	William Houston	3,488	8.2	-7.7
Majority			5,133	12.1	+10.5
Turnout			42,607	75.7
	Conservative win (new seat)

External links

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 5)