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Dundee East (UK Parliament constituency)

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Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1950-2024 Not to be confused with Dundee East (Scottish Parliament constituency).

Dundee East
Former burgh constituency
for the House of Commons
Outline mapBoundary of Dundee East in Scotland
Subdivisions of ScotlandAngus/Dundee City
Major settlementsBroughty Ferry, Carnoustie, Monifieth
1950–2024
Created fromDundee
Replaced byArbroath and Broughty Ferry

Dundee East was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (at Westminster). Created for the 1950 general election, it elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post voting system.

This was one of the safest SNP seats. Since 2005, Stewart Hosie of the Scottish National Party had served as the MP for the constituency. On 14 November 2014, Hosie was elected as Deputy Leader of the Scottish National Party, succeeding Nicola Sturgeon, who was elected as the party leader; Hosie served as Deputy Leader until 13 October 2016.

At the 2023 periodic review of Westminster constituencies, the seat was subject to boundary changes, gaining the town of Arbroath and surrounding areas, partly offset by the loss of parts of East End, Maryfield and Strathmartine from the Dundee City council area which moved to Dundee Central. As a consequence, Dundee East was renamed Arbroath and Broughty Ferry, and was first contested at the 2024 general election.

Constituency profile

Fanning out from the city's docklands, Dundee East takes in a series of mixed residential areas as far as the town of Carnoustie and the affluent suburb of Monifieth in the north-east. Prosperous middle-class enclaves such as Barnhill and Broughty Ferry contrast with older tenement districts and council estates such as Douglas and Whitfield.

Boundaries

Map of boundaries 2005-2024

1950–1974: The County of the City of Dundee wards numbers 1, 4, 5, 10, 11, and 12.

1974–1983: The County of the City of Dundee wards of Broughty Ferry, Caird, Craigie, Douglas, Harbour, and Hilltown. The constituency boundaries remained unchanged.

1983–1997: The City of Dundee District electoral divisions of Balgillo/Eastern, Caird/Midhill, Clepington/Maryfield, Coldside/Hilltown, Craigiebank, Douglas/Drumgeith, Fintry, Welgate/Baxter Park, West Ferry/Broughty Ferry, and Whitfield/Longhaugh.

1997–2005: The City of Dundee District electoral divisions of Barnhill, Broughty Ferry, Clepington, Dens, Douglas and Angus, Fintry, Kingsway East, Stannergate, and Whitfield.

2005–2024: The Dundee City Council wards of Balgillo, Barnhill, Baxter Park, Broughty Ferry, Claverhouse, Craigiebank, Douglas, East Port, Longhaugh, Pitkerro, West Ferry, and Whitfield, and the Angus Council wards of Carnoustie Central, Carnoustie East, Carnoustie West, Monifieth Central, Monifieth West, and Sidlaw East and Ashludie.

The constituency was one of two covering the Dundee City council area, the other being Dundee West. Final boundaries were first used in the 2005 general election.

Prior to the 2005 election, both constituencies were entirely within the city area, and the northeastern and northwestern areas of the city were within the Angus constituency. Scottish Parliament constituencies retain the older boundaries.

Politics and history of the constituency

From the first time it was contested in 1950 through to the 1966 general election, the Dundee East seat returned Labour MPs with comfortable majorities of between 3,805 and 8,126 votes over the second-placed Conservatives. Additionally the Labour candidate always polled more than 50% of the votes cast in these contests. However, in 1970, Labour's majority over the Conservatives fell to 2,798 votes and the Labour share dipped below 50%. The same year saw the Scottish National Party contest the seat in a general election for the first time, though they had previously contested the 1952 by-election.

The constituency had been a marginal seat between the SNP and Labour since the 1973 by-election. Although Labour won the seat in that by-election, the SNP established itself as the clear challenger and continued to advance, winning the seat in the next general election. Labour were thought to have underperformed in not winning the seat back in the 1979 general election, and the choice of the former Communist Jimmy Reid as Labour candidate was blamed for the loss. John McAllion regained the constituency for Labour at the 1987 general election.

Boundary changes which came into force in 2005 brought in many voters from more suburban areas formerly in the Angus constituency. Although estimates of the 2001 general election result on the new boundaries showed Labour ahead, the lead was exceptionally narrow, and after the SNP won the Scottish Parliament seat on the original boundaries in 2003, a close fight was expected (and occurred) in the 2005 general election. The constituency was gained by the SNP's Stewart Hosie, who won the constituency with a 1.0% vote majority ahead of Labour in 2005, which he increased to 4.5% at the 2010 general election.

In 2015, the sitting SNP MP Stewart Hosie retained the seat with a majority of 19,162 votes and a 39.8% share of the vote. This was the largest majority of any of the 56 SNP MPs elected at that year's general election in terms of percentage, although a slightly larger numerical majority was achieved in Falkirk.

In 2017 Hosie's vote share dropped to 42.8% and a revived Conservative Party cut his majority by more than two thirds to 6,645. Labour narrowly slipped into third place. In 2019 Hosie increased his majority to over 13,000 votes as his vote share rose by 11%. In percentage terms, the SNP majority of 29.54%, was the party's second largest at the election, being surpassed only by the 33.87 majority it had in Aberdeen North. The Conservative's remained in second place with a small decrease in vote share, but the Labour vote decreased dramatically as the party recorded its worst ever result in the seat's history.

Members of Parliament

Election Member Party
1950 Thomas Cook Labour
1952 by-election George Thomson Labour
1973 by-election George Machin Labour
Feb 1974 Gordon Wilson SNP
1987 John McAllion Labour
2001 Iain Luke Labour
2005 Stewart Hosie SNP

Election results

Elections in the 1950s

General election 1950: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Thomas Cook 26,005 53.34 N/A
National Liberal James Henderson 21,658 44.42 N/A
Communist David P Bowman 1,093 2.24 N/A
Majority 4,347 8.92 N/A
Turnout 48,756 88.60 N/A
Labour win (new seat)
General election 1951: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Thomas Cook 26,668 53.84 +1.51
National Liberal Janet Sutherland Murray 22,863 46.16 +1.74
Majority 3,805 7.68 −1.24
Turnout 49,531 87.23 −1.37
Labour hold Swing
1952 by-election: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour George Thomson 22,161 56.64 +2.80
National Liberal Paul Cowcher 14,035 35.87 −10.29
SNP Donald Stewart 2,931 7.49 New
Independent E G MacFarlane 290 0.74 New
Majority 8,126 20.77 +13.09
Turnout 39,127
Labour hold Swing
General election 1955: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour George Thomson 25,646 54.27
National Liberal Robert R. Taylor 21,606 45.73
Majority 4,040 8.56
Turnout 47,252 82.32
Labour hold Swing
General election 1959: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour George Thomson 26,263 54.32
National Liberal Robert A McCrindle 22,082 45.68
Majority 4,181 8.64
Turnout 48,345 82.59
Labour hold Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General election 1964: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour George Thomson 26,062 54.80
National Liberal John Marshall 21,499 45.20
Majority 4,563 9.60 +0.96
Turnout 47,561 80.00 −2.59
Labour hold Swing
General election 1966: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour George Thomson 25,530 56.32
Conservative John Marshall 19,804 43.68
Majority 5,726 12.64 +3.04
Turnout 45,334 78.84 −1.16
Labour hold Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General election 1970: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour George Thomson 22,630 48.34
Conservative Allan Stewart 19,832 42.36
SNP Ian Macaulay 4,181 8.93 New
World Government Radical E. G. Macfarlane 176 0.38 New
Majority 2,798 5.98
Turnout 46,819 75.97
Labour hold Swing
1973 Dundee East by-election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour George Machin 14,411 32.74 −15.60
SNP Gordon Wilson 13,270 30.15 +21.22
Conservative William Fitzgerald 11,089 25.19 −17.17
Liberal Nathaniel Gordon 3,653 8.30 New
Labour Party of Scotland George MacLean 1,409 3.20 New
Independent John S Thomson 182 0.41 New
Majority 1,141 2.59 −3.39
Turnout 44,014
Labour hold Swing
General election February 1974: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SNP Gordon Wilson 20,066 39.53 +31.60
Labour George Machin 17,100 33.69 −15.65
Conservative James George Clyde 13,371 26.34 −15.98
Christian Democratic Socialist James Gourlay 220 0.43 New
Majority 2,966 5.84 N/A
Turnout 50,757 81.09 +5.12
SNP gain from Labour Swing
General election October 1974: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SNP Gordon Wilson 22,120 47.73 +8.20
Labour George Machin 15,137 32.66 −1.03
Conservative Bill Walker 7,784 16.80 −9.54
Liberal Chic Brodie 1,302 2.81 New
Majority 6,983 15.07 +9.2
Turnout 46,343 73.41 −7.68
SNP hold Swing
General election 1979: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SNP Gordon Wilson 20,497 41.03 −6.60
Labour Jimmy Reid 17,978 35.99 +3.33
Conservative Brian James Taggart Townsend 9,072 18.16 +1.36
Liberal Chic Brodie 2,317 4.64 +1.83
Workers Revolutionary Roy Battersby 95 0.19 New
Majority 2,519 5.04 −10.03
Turnout 49,959 77.70 +4.29
SNP hold Swing

Elections in the 1980s

General election 1983: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SNP Gordon Wilson 20,276 43.8 +2.8
Labour Charles Bowman 15,260 33.0 −3.4
Conservative Barbara Vaughan 7,712 15.5 −2.3
Liberal Stephen Rottger 3,546 7.7 +3.1
Majority 5,016 10.8 +5.8
Turnout 46,794 73.7 −4.0
SNP hold Swing
General election 1987: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour John McAllion 19,539 42.3 +9.3
SNP Gordon Wilson 18,524 40.1 −3.7
Conservative Paul Cook 5,938 12.9 −2.6
Liberal Margo von Romberg 2,143 4.6 −3.1
Majority 1,015 2.2 N/A
Turnout 46,144 75.9 +2.2
Labour gain from SNP Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General election 1992: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour John McAllion 18,761 44.1 +1.8
SNP David Coutts 14,197 33.4 −6.7
Conservative Steve Blackwood 7,549 17.8 +4.9
Liberal Democrats Ian Yuill 1,725 4.1 −0.5
Scottish Green Shiona Baird 205 0.5 New
Natural Law Ronald Baxter 77 0.2 New
Majority 4,564 10.7 +8.5
Turnout 42,514 72.1 −3.8
Labour hold Swing
General election 1997: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour John McAllion 20,718 51.1 +7.0
SNP Shona Robison 10,757 26.5 −6.9
Conservative Bruce Mackie 6,397 15.8 −2.0
Liberal Democrats Gurudeo Saluja 1,677 4.1 0.0
Referendum Edward Galloway 601 1.5 New
Scottish Socialist Harvey Duke 232 0.6 New
Natural Law Elisabeth Mackenzie 146 0.4 +0.2
Majority 9,961 24.6 +13.9
Turnout 40,528 69.3 −2.8
Labour hold Swing

Elections in the 2000s

General election 2001: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Iain Luke 14,635 45.2 −5.9
SNP Stewart Hosie 10,169 31.4 +4.9
Conservative Alan Donnelly 3,900 12.0 −3.8
Liberal Democrats Raymond Lawrie 2,784 8.6 +4.5
Scottish Socialist Harvey Duke 879 2.7 +2.1
Majority 4,466 13.8 −8.8
Turnout 32,367 57.3 −12.0
Labour hold Swing
General election 2005: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SNP Stewart Hosie 14,708 37.2 +1.1
Labour Iain Luke 14,325 36.2 −1.2
Conservative Chris Bustin 5,061 12.8 −2.5
Liberal Democrats Clive Sneddon 4,498 11.4 +2.7
Scottish Socialist Harvey Duke 537 1.4 −1.2
UKIP Donald Low 292 0.7 New
Independent David Allison 119 0.3 New
Majority 383 1.0 N/A
Turnout 39,540 62.4 +3.3
SNP gain from Labour Swing +1.1

Elections in the 2010s

General election 2010: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SNP Stewart Hosie 15,350 37.8 +0.6
Labour Katrina Murray 13,529 33.3 −2.9
Conservative Chris Bustin 6,177 15.2 +2.4
Liberal Democrats Clive Sneddon 4,285 10.6 −0.8
Scottish Green Shiona Baird 542 1.3 New
UKIP Mike Arthur 431 1.1 +0.4
Scottish Socialist Angela Gorrie 254 0.6 −0.8
Majority 1,821 4.5 +3.5
Turnout 40,568 62.0 −2.4
SNP hold Swing +1.7
General election 2015: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SNP Stewart Hosie 28,765 59.7 +21.9
Labour Lesley Brennan 9,603 19.9 −13.4
Conservative Bill Bowman 7,206 15.0 −0.2
Liberal Democrats Craig Duncan 1,387 2.9 −7.7
Scottish Green Helen Grayshan 895 1.9 +0.6
CISTA Lesley Parker-Hamilton 225 0.5 New
TUSC Carlo Morelli 104 0.2 New
Majority 19,162 39.8 +34.3
Turnout 48,185 71.0 +9.0
SNP hold Swing +17.7
General election 2017: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SNP Stewart Hosie 18,391 42.8 −16.9
Conservative Eleanor Price 11,746 27.4 +12.4
Labour Lesley Brennan 11,176 26.0 +6.1
Liberal Democrats Chris McIntyre 1,615 3.8 +0.9
Majority 6,645 15.4 −24.4
Turnout 42,928 65.2 −5.8
SNP hold Swing −14.7
General election 2019: Dundee East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SNP Stewart Hosie 24,361 53.8 +11.0
Conservative Philip Scott 10,986 24.3 −3.1
Labour Rosalind Garton 6,045 13.4 −14.6
Liberal Democrats Michael Crichton 3,573 7.9 +4.1
Independent George Morton 312 0.7 New
Majority 13,375 29.5 +14.1
Turnout 45,277 68.4 +3.2
SNP hold Swing +7.1

References

  1. Boundary Commission Scotland 2023 Review Report
  2. Craig, F. W. S. (1971). British parliamentary Election Results 1950-1970. Chichester: Political Reference Publications. p. 596. ISBN 0-900178-02-7.
  3. The Times Guide to the House of Commons 2015. London: Times Books. 2015. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-00-812631-5.
  4. The Times Guide to the House of Commons 2019. Glasgow: Times Books. 2020. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1.
  5. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 4)
  6. Hazel, John W. (1977). John W Hazel's Book of Records. Dundee: D. Winter & Son Ltd. p. 50.
  7. Whitaker's Almanack 1963
  8. ^ Hazel, John W. (1977). John W Hazel's Book of Records. Dundee: D. Winter & Son Ltd. p. 51.
  9. "1973 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  10. ^ The Times Guide to the House of Commons May 1979. London: Times Books Limited. 1979. p. 98. ISBN 0-7230-0225-8.
  11. Whitaker's Almanack 1977
  12. "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  13. The Times Guide to the House of Commons June 1983. London: Times Books Limited. 1983. p. 99. ISBN 0-7230-0255-X.
  14. "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  15. "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  16. ^ "Aristotle: Dundee East", Guardian Unlimited
  17. "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  18. "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  19. "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  20. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  21. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  22. "Dundee East Election Results". www.dundeecity.gov.uk. Dundee City Council. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  23. "Statement of Persons Nominated and Notice of Poll" (PDF). Dundee City Council. 11 May 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  24. "General Election: SNP reselects 54 MPs". www.scotsman.com.
  25. "Dundee East parliamentary constituency - Election 2017" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  26. Morkis, Stefan (29 April 2017). "Lesley Brennan selected as Labour candidate for Dundee East".
  27. "Election Notices" (PDF). Dundee City Council. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  28. "Dundee East parliamentary constituency - Election 2019 - BBC News" – via www.bbc.co.uk.

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