Gordon (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Gordon (UK Parliament constituency).

Gordon
Former county constituency for the Scottish Parliament
Gordon shown within the North East Scotland electoral region and the region shown within Scotland
Former constituency
Created	1999 (1999)
Abolished	2011 (2011)
Council area	Aberdeenshire (part) Moray (part)
Replaced by	Aberdeenshire East, Aberdeenshire West, Moray

Gordon was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament. It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It was one of nine constituencies in the North East Scotland electoral region, which elected seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

Electoral region

See also: North East Scotland (Scottish Parliament electoral region)

At the time of this constituency the other eight constituencies of the North East Scotland region were; Aberdeen Central, Aberdeen North, Aberdeen South, Angus, Banff and Buchan, Dundee East, Dundee West and West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine

The electoral region covered Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Dundee City; part of Angus; and small parts of Moray and Perth and Kinross.

Constituency boundaries

The Gordon constituency was created at the same time as the Scottish Parliament, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of an existing Westminster constituency. In 2005, however, the boundaries of the Westminster (House of Commons) constituency were subject to some alteration.

Council areas

The Scottish Parliament constituency of Gordon covered a central portion of the Aberdeenshire council area and a small eastern portion of the Moray council area. The rest of the Aberdeenshire area was covered by two other constituencies, both also in the North East Scotland electoral region: Banff and Buchan to the north of the Gordon constituency, and West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine to the south. The rest of the Moray area was covered by the Moray constituency, which is in the Highlands and Islands region.

Boundary Review

See also: Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions from 2011

Following their First Periodic review of constituencies to the Scottish Parliament, the Boundary Commission for Scotland replaced Gordon with the seat called Aberdeenshire East.

Member of the Scottish Parliament

The seat was represented since the 2007 election by Alex Salmond, the First Minister. He was previously MSP for Banff and Buchan from 1999 until resigning in 2001; he also represented the Westminster seat of Banff and Buchan from 1987 until retiring from the UK Parliament in 2010.

Election		Member	Party
	1999	Nora Radcliffe	Liberal Democrats
	2007	Alex Salmond	SNP
	2011	constituency abolished: see Aberdeenshire East Aberdeenshire West and Moray

Election results

2007 Scottish Parliament election: Gordon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Alex Salmond	14,650	41.4	+18.8
	Liberal Democrats	Nora Radcliffe	12,588	35.6	−2.5
	Conservative	Nanette Milne	5,348	15.1	−8.8
	Labour	Neil Cardwell	2,276	6.4	−3.9
	Independent	Donald Marr	199	0.6	New
	Independent	Dave Mathers	185	0.5	New
	Scottish Enterprise	Bob Ingram	117	0.3	New
Majority			2,062	5.8	N/A
Turnout			35,363	54.1	+6.6
	SNP gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing	+10.7

2003 Scottish Parliament election: Gordon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Nora Radcliffe	10,963	38.1	+1.4
	Conservative	Nanette Milne	6,892	24.0	+4.4
	SNP	Alasdair Allan	6,501	22.6	−1.7
	Labour	Ellis Thorpe	2,973	10.3	−1.4
	Scottish Socialist	John Sangster	730	2.5	New
	Independent	Steven Mathers	689	2.4	New
Majority			4071	14.1	+1.7
Turnout			28,748	47.5
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing	-1.5

1999 Scottish Parliament election: Gordon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Nora Radcliffe	12,353	36.7	N/A
	SNP	Sandy Stronach	8,158	24.3	N/A
	Conservative	Alex Johnstone	6,602	19.6	N/A
	Labour	Gillian Carlin-Kulwicki	3,950	11.7	N/A
	Independent	Hamish Watt	2,559	7.6	N/A
Majority			4,195	12.4	N/A
Turnout			33,622		N/A
	Liberal Democrats win (new seat)