Dumbarton LAB Hold

Scottish Parliament election

constituency

	Dumbarton	LAB Hold

	CANDIDATE	PARTY	VOTES	%	+/-%
	Jackie Baillie	LAB	12154	42.2	-1.6
	Iain Docherty	SNP	5542	19.2	-10.8
	Eric Thompson	LD	4455	15.5	+3.8
	Murray Tosh	CON	4178	14.5	-0.1
	Les Robertson	SSP	2494	8.7	+8.7
		MAJORITY	6612	22.9
		TURNOUT	28823	51.9

ELECTORATE	55575

Top-up region: West of Scotland

DESCRIPTION: Dumbarton

The seat is a mixture of urban and rural areas, with the population clustered in the south and hills. Dumbarton's principal industry was once shipbuilding - the Cutty Sark was built there - but now whisky bottling and blending are more important concerns. Commuters to Glasgow also live in Dumbarton now. Other sites of note are the Faslane nuclear submarine base and Loch Lomond - the seat's eastern border. Loch Lomond forms part of Scotland’s first National Park, created in January 2002.

It has been a Labour seat since 1936. The Conservatives were the second-placed party (with the exception of October 1974) until the 1997 election, when the SNP overtook them. It has been making advances in local government here and in the past Labour has talked up the “Nationalist threat” in Dumbarton. Former Social Justice Minister Jackie Billie was elected the MSP in 1999, with a majority of 4,747.

PREVIOUS RESULTS

	1999 SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT ELECTION		LAB WIN
	PARTY	VOTES	%
	LAB	15181	43.7
	SNP	10434	30.1
	CON	5060	14.6
	LD	4035	11.6

	2001 GENERAL ELECTION		LAB WIN
	PARTY	VOTES	%
	LAB	16151	47.5
	SNP	6576	19.3
	LD	5265	15.5
	CON	4648	13.7
	SSP	1354	4