BBC NEWS | VOTE 2003


CANDIDATE	PARTY	VOTES	%	+/-%
Kenneth Macintosh	LAB	13946	35.9	-1.8
Jackson Carlaw	CON	10244	26.3	-6.6
Allan Steele	LD	5056	13.0	+3.1
Stewart Maxwell	SNP	4736	12.2	-7.3
Margaret Hinds	LHC	3163	8.1	+8.1
Steve Oram	SSP	1504	3.9	+3.9
Martyn Greene	SPA	240	0.6	+0.6

	MAJORITY	3702	9.5
	TURNOUT	38889	58


ELECTORATE	67051

DESCRIPTION: Eastwood

The seat is composed of a number of middle-class commuter towns in the far south of the Glasgow conurbation, with the addition of industrial Barrhead. Most housing is owner-occupied, with plenty more land still available for further private developments. In the south of the seat the only main centre of population is Eaglesham, the first conservation village in Scotland and near the site of Rudolph Hess's landing on his peace mission to Britain in 1941. Farming is common in this part of the seat, whilst light and service industries form the basis of the economy in the more populated areas in the north. Three quarters of the workforce is in non-manual jobs, however, and good ones at that.

This was the safest Conservative seat in Scotland until the 1997 when Labour's Jim Murphy won it. He has turned Eastwood into a safe Labour seat at Westminster. In 2001 he won the largest Labour vote in Scotland (23,061 votes), although this was partly down to the high turnout. The Conservatives only need a swing of 3% to take this seat from Labour�s MSP Ken Macintosh.

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