Falkirk West IND Hold

Scottish Parliament election

constituency

	Falkirk West	IND Hold

	CANDIDATE	PARTY	VOTES	%	+/-%
	Dennis Canavan	IND	14703	55.7	+0.7
	Michael Matheson	SNP	4703	17.8	+0.0
	Lee Whitehill	LAB	4589	17.4	-1.4
	Iain Mitchell	CON	1657	6.3	+0.6
	Jaqueline Kelly	LD	748	2.8	0.0
		MAJORITY	10000	37.9
		TURNOUT	26400	50.7

ELECTORATE	52122

Top-up region: Central Scotland

DESCRIPTION: Falkirk West

The town of Falkirk lies within the boundaries of this seat, which is equi-distant from Glasgow and Edinburgh. It threw off reliance upon agriculture in the eighteenth century when it became an iron-founding town. Today the iron industry is no more, but the seat is still home to industrial towns and villages, involved in heavy vehicle assembly, distilling and new light industries. The area is of historical interest with parts of the Antonine Wall to be found at Bonnybridge.

In 1999 the sitting Labour MP for Falkirk, Dennis Canavan, was blocked from standing for Holyrood by Labour's central selection panel, which claimed he wasn’t good enough. He said it was because he was a left-winger unafraid of disagreeing with the leadership. He stood as an independent and won with a majority of over 12,000. Talks with about a return to the party fold broke down and he resigned his Westminster seat in October 2000, triggering a bruising by-election that Labour’s Eric Joyce won by only 705 votes. Major Joyce consolidated his victory at the 2001 elections, winning with a majority of 8,532.

PREVIOUS RESULTS

	1999 SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT ELECTION		IND WIN
	PARTY	VOTES	%
	IND	18511	55
	LAB	6319	18.8
	SNP	5986	17.8
	CON	1897	5.6
	LD	954	2.8

	2001 GENERAL ELECTION		LAB WIN
	PARTY	VOTES	%
	LAB	16022	51.9
	SNP	7490	24.2
	CON	2321	7.5
	LD	2203	7.1
	IND	1464	4.7
	SSP	707	2.3
	IND	490	1.6
	SLP	194	0.6