Falkirk East LAB Hold

Scottish Parliament election

constituency

	Falkirk East	LAB Hold

	CANDIDATE	PARTY	VOTES	%	+/-%
	Cathy Peattie	LAB	14235	51.7	+6.5
	Keith Brown	SNP	7576	27.5	-5.7
	Thomas Calvert	CON	2720	9.9	+0.1
	Karen Utting	LD	1651	6.0	-1.2
	Mhairi McAlpine	SSP	1377	5.0	+5.0
		MAJORITY	6659	24.2
		TURNOUT	27559	49.1

ELECTORATE	56175

Top-up region: Central Scotland

DESCRIPTION: Falkirk East

Following boundary changes in 1997 the town of Falkirk is longer in this seat. Despite including large tracts of open countryside, it is industrial in character and mainly working class. Grangemouth holds both a modern container port and a vast petrochemical complex, the chimneys of which can be seen belching smoke for miles around. The BP plant was the site of the main petrol blockade during the fuel protest in September 2000. A year later BP announced that it was cutting 1,000 jobs - 40% of the workforce. One of seat’s more novel sights is a 45-foot stone pineapple at Dunmore, built to mark an ill-fated attempt at cultivation of the fruit in the eighteenth century and a tourist attraction today.

Like most seats in the central belt it has been solidly Labour, the sitting MP Michael Connarty winning a majority of 10,712 in 2001. He applied to stand for the Scottish Parliament in 1999 but, like Dennis Canavan, was rejected by Labour's central selection panel. Cathy Peattie was elected to the Scottish Parliament for Labour in 1999 with a majority of 4,000.

PREVIOUS RESULTS

	1999 SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT ELECTION		LAB WIN
	PARTY	VOTES	%
	LAB	15721	44.6
	SNP	11582	32.9
	CON	3399	9.7
	LD	2509	7.1
	SLP	1643	4.6
	IND	358	1

	2001 GENERAL ELECTION		LAB WIN
	PARTY	VOTES	%
	LAB	18536	55
	SNP	7824	23.2
	CON	3252	9.6
	LD	2992	8.9
	SSP	725	2.2
	SLP	373	1.1