Lanark & Hamilton East
2015 Result:
Conservative: 8772 (15.9%)
Labour: 16876 (30.5%)
Lib Dem: 1203 (2.2%)
SNP: 26976 (48.8%)
UKIP: 1431 (2.6%)
MAJORITY: 10100 (18.3%)
Category: Semi-marginal SNP seat
Geography: Scotland, Central and South Scotland. Part of the South Lanarkshire council area.
Main population centres: Hamilton, Lanark, Larkhall, Bothwell.
Profile: Like the neighbouring East Kilbridge, Strathaven and Lesmahagow seat, this seat consists of a compact urban area towards Glasgow, tied to a huge larger rural area to the south. In the northern part of the seat are the suburb of Uddingston, where Tunnocks teacakes are manufactured, the upmarket and affluent suburb of Bothwell and the eastern half of the large service and administrative town of Hamilton. It includes Hamilton Park Racecourse and the Hamilton Campus of the University of the West of Scotland. Further south is the former industrial town of Larkhall, beyond which the seat stretches eastwards into open countryside and farmland around the traditional market town of Lanark.
Politics: Created in 2005 after extensive boundary changes in the local area, this was a safe Labour seat at Westminster but fell to the SNP in their 2015 landslide.
| Con: | 6981 (15%) |
| Lab: | 23258 (50%) |
| LDem: | 5249 (11%) |
| SNP: | 9780 (21%) |
| Oth: | 1286 (3%) |
| MAJ: | 13478 (29%) |
| Con: | 5576 (13%) |
| Lab: | 20072 (46%) |
| LDem: | 8125 (19%) |
| SNP: | 7746 (18%) |
| Oth: | 2070 (5%) |
| MAJ: | 11947 (27%) |
| Con: | 5034 (13%) |
| Lab: | 17822 (47%) |
| LDem: | 4111 (11%) |
| SNP: | 10028 (26%) |
| Oth: | 1227 (3%) |
| MAJ: | 7794 (20%) |
| Con: | 7396 (16%) |
| Lab: | 23859 (53%) |
| LDem: | 3796 (8%) |
| SNP: | 10050 (22%) |
| Oth: | 311 (1%) |
| MAJ: | 13809 (30%) |
Former MP Jimmy Hood, has died aged 69.
He was an NUM official in Notts during the strike and was one of the few MPs who voted against the Gulf War.
He supported the Greek Cypriots and called for the Turks to be removed from the island.
He used Parliamentary Privilege to name Leon Brittan’s improper conduct with children.
Yes Jeremy Corbyn paid tribute to him today. I had heard that he had been unwell some time ago. RIP.
When large numbers of Scottish coalmines closed in the 1960s, redundant miners were offered the chance to relocate to the much younger coalfield of east Nottinghamshire. I think Hood’s family was most likely part of that.
Well into the 1980s, British Rail used to run several trains a day from Nottingham to Glasgow and Edinburgh via most peculiar routes, primarily to cater for the sizeable number of locals with relatives in Scotland. This might also partly account for the strong Labour vote in Newark, Sherwood and Bassetlaw and why it seems to have melted away badly (except in the latter) in recent elections.