Coatbridge and Airdrie (UK Parliament constituency)

Coatbridge and Airdrie
Former burgh constituency
for the House of Commons
Subdivisions of ScotlandLanarkshire
Major settlementsCoatbridge, Airdrie
19501983
SeatsOne
Created fromCoatbridge
Replaced byMonklands East and Monklands West[1]

Coatbridge and Airdrie was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) from 1950 until 1983.

It was then replaced by the Monklands West constituency.

Boundaries

The constituency location was in northern Lanarkshire, to the north of Bothwell and to the east of Glasgow. From 1885 until 1983 Coatbridge and Airdrie were linked for parliamentary purposes. The seat was named Coatbridge and Airdrie after 1950.

In the 1885-1918 period the area formed the county constituency of Coatbridge. In the 1918 redistribution the burgh constituency of Coatbridge was created. The seat was defined in 1918 as comprising the burghs of Airdrie and Coatbridge.

The change in the constituency name in 1950 did not affect the boundaries. Apart from a small boundary change to Airdrie, which took effect for parliamentary purposes in 1955, its boundaries did not alter until the areas parliamentary representation was remodelled in 1983.

From the 1983 general election the area was divided between two new seats. It provided the majority of the electorate for both Monklands East and Monklands West. 34,802 electors in the old seat were included in the new East constituency (57.1% of the old seat and 72.2% of the new one). 26,148 voters found themselves in Monklands West (42.9% of the old seat and 53.4% of the new one).

Members of Parliament

Election Member Party
1950 Jean Mann Labour
1959 James Dempsey Labour
1982 by-election Tom Clarke Labour
1983 constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1950s

General election 1950: Coatbridge and Airdrie[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Jean Mann 23,239 56.53
Unionist James McMillan 16,552 40.27
Anti-Partition TP O'Callaghan 1,315 3.20
Majority 6,687 16.26
Turnout 47,841 85.92
Labour win (new seat)
General election 1951: Coatbridge and Airdrie[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Jean Mann 24,159 57.37 +0.84
Unionist James McMillan 17,952 42.63 +2.36
Majority 6,207 14.74 −1.53
Turnout 42,111
Labour hold Swing
General election 1955: Coatbridge and Airdrie[4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Jean Mann 22,269 55.85 −1.52
Unionist David Anderson 17,605 44.15 +1.52
Majority 4,664 11.70 −3.04
Turnout 39,874
Labour hold Swing
General election 1959: Coatbridge and Airdrie[5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour James Dempsey 22,747 50.89 −4.96
Unionist Catherine S Morton 21,953 49.11 +4.96
Majority 794 1.78 −9.92
Turnout 44,700
Labour hold Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General election 1964: Coatbridge and Airdrie[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour James Dempsey 27,178 62.11 +11.22
Unionist Andrew Thomson 16,580 37.89 −11.22
Majority 10,598 24.22 +22.44
Turnout 43,758
Labour hold Swing
General election 1966: Coatbridge and Airdrie[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour James Dempsey 26,491 64.19 +2.08
Conservative William C Raeburn 14,777 35.81 −2.08
Majority 11,714 28.38 +4.16
Turnout 41,268
Labour hold Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General election 1970: Coatbridge and Airdrie[8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour James Dempsey 26,117 58.88 −5.31
Conservative William Rennie 15,574 35.11 −0.70
SNP Wolseley Brown 2,667 6.01 New
Majority 10,543 23.77 −4.62
Turnout 44,358
Labour hold Swing
General election February 1974: Coatbridge and Airdrie
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour James Dempsey 24,945 54.15 −4.73
Conservative C Anderson 13,162 28.57 −6.54
SNP D R M Hill 7,961 17.28 +11.27
Majority 11,783 25.58 +1.81
Turnout 46,068
Labour hold Swing
General election October 1974: Coatbridge and Airdrie
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour James Dempsey 23,034 51.61 −2.54
SNP D R M Hill 12,466 27.93 +10.65
Conservative John Love 7,683 17.22 −11.35
Liberal A Smith 1,446 3.24 New
Majority 10,568 23.68 −1.90
Turnout 44,629
Labour hold Swing
General election 1979: Coatbridge and Airdrie
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour James Dempsey 27,598 60.9 +9.3
Conservative J. Love 12,442 27.5 +10.3
SNP M. Johnston 5,260 11.6 −16.3
Majority 15,156 33.4 +9.7
Turnout 45,300 75.3
Labour hold Swing
Registered electors 60,133

Elections in 1980s

  • Death of James Dempsey
By-Election 24 June 1982: Coatbridge and Airdrie
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Tom Clarke 19,208 55.1 −5.8
Conservative Hugo de Burgh 9,118 26.2 −1.3
SNP Ron Wyllie 3,652 10.5 −1.1
Liberal Sandy Henderson 2,873 8.2 New
Majority 10,090 28.9 −4.5
Turnout 34,951 56.3 −19.0
Labour hold Swing
Registered electors 61,876

References

  1. ^ "'Coatbridge and Airdrie', Feb 1974 - May 1983". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  2. ^ The Times' Guide to the House of Commons. 1950.
  3. ^ The Times' Guide to the House of Commons. 1951.
  4. ^ The Times' Guide to the House of Commons. 1955.
  5. ^ The Times' Guide to the House of Commons. 1959.
  6. ^ The Times' Guide to the House of Commons. 1964.
  7. ^ The Times' Guide to the House of Commons. 1966.
  8. ^ The Times' Guide to the House of Commons. 1970.

See also