Scottish Constituencies and MPs

'There is not a drop of blood in my veins which is not pure Scotch.' William Ewart Gladstone in the Midlothian by-election campaign, 1879.

Scottish Constituencies & MPs

The last Riding of the Scottish Parliament, 1706

These pages will be expanded to include the names and constituencies of each Scottish MP from the Union of the Parliaments in 1707 until the present day.

On the first of May 1707, according to the Acts of Union, the parliaments of Scotland and England were dissolved and a new parliament of Great Britain was established. In reality, while the Scottish parliament was dissolved, the English parliament at Westminster continued almost unchanged.

Unlike the Scottish parliament, the British parliament of 1707 consisted of two chambers:

A House of Commons consisting of:

• 45 elected members of parliament from Scotland
  
• 513 elected members of parliament from England & Wales

• 16 representative peers from Scotland
  
• 190 peers from England & Wales

Constituencies: Constituency names can be confusing. Although the terms Burgh and County constituencies have fallen from common useage, they are still used, eg to determine election expenses. The convention, although not the rule, is that in Burgh constituencies, such as Aberdeen North, the compass point comes after the Burgh name, whereas in County constituencies, such as West Aberdeenshire & Kincardine, the compass point comes before the name of the County. However, some constituencies have used different formats - eg North Tayside became Tayside North in 1997. In the constituency generally referred to as Berwick and East Lothian, 'Berwick' refers to neither Berwick-Upon-Tweed, or North Berwick, but to Berwickshire - an old Scottish County whose county town is now in England. Edinburghshire referred not to the City (Burgh) of Edinburgh, but to the County of Midlothian. Political journalists sometimes stated that the Tories had held Ayr since 19206. However, Ayr, a County constituency has only existed since 1950: before that, the Ayr Burghs was, as the name suggests, a Burgh constituency. Old styles such as 'Eastern' are often modernised to 'East' and this can cause confusion between constituencies such as Eastern Aberdeenshire, which existed between 1868 and 1918, and East Aberdeenshire whose lifespan was 1950 until 1983. In the following table, compass points follow the constituency name. Although strictly speaking incorrect, and guaranteed to irritate purists, this system greatly facilitates indexing.