Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber
Former County constituency
for the House of Commons
Subdivisions of ScotlandHighland
1983–1997
SeatsOne
Created fromArgyll, Inverness and Moray and Nairn
Replaced byInverness East, Nairn & Lochaber and Ross, Skye & Inverness West

Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 to 1997. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election.

History

Throughout the 1983 to 1997 period, this marginal constituency was represented by a Liberal, and then Liberal Democrat, MP: Sir David Russell Johnston (later Baron Russell-Johnston), who had been, previously, MP for the Inverness constituency.

Boundaries

The constituency was created to cover four of the eight districts of Highland local government region: the Inverness district, the Nairn district, the Lochaber district and the Badenoch and Strathspey district. The region and districts had been created in 1975, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, when the county and burgh system of local government was abolished. The other districts of the region were covered by the Ross, Cromarty and Skye constituency and the Caithness and Sutherland constituency.

In 1996, under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994, the districts were abolished and the region became a unitary council area.

In 1997, constituency boundaries were redrawn to divide the Highland area between three new constituencies: Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Ross, Skye and Inverness West and Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross. New constituency boundaries divided the areas of some of the former districts.

Members of Parliament

EventMember[1]Party
1983 Russell Johnston Liberal
1988 Liberal Democrat
1997 constituency abolished: see Inverness East, Nairn & Lochaber
and Ross, Skye & Inverness West

Election results

Inverness election history

Elections in the 1980s

General election 1983: Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Russell Johnston 20,671 46.0 +17.2
Conservative David Maclean 13,373 29.8 +3.3
Labour Duncan McMillan 6,448 14.4 -6.5
SNP Hamish William Vernal 4,395 9.8 -13.8
Majority 7,298 16.2
Turnout 44,887 70.5
Liberal win (new seat)
General election 1987: Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Russell Johnston 17,422 36.8 −9.2
Labour David John Stewart 11,991 25.4 +11.0
Conservative Annabel Keswick 10,901 23.0 −6.8
SNP Niall Johnson 7,001 14.8 +5.0
Majority 5,431 11.4 -4.8
Turnout 47,315 70.9 +0.4
Liberal hold Swing −10.1

Elections in the 1990s

In the 1992 election, the four major parties were separated by only 3.41%, the closest four-way result in an election to the UK Parliament since 1918.[4]

General election 1992: Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber[5][6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Russell Johnston 13,258 26.0 −10.8
Labour David Stewart 12,800 25.1 −0.3
SNP Fergus Ewing 12,562 24.7 +9.9
Conservative John Scott 11,517 22.6 −0.4
Scottish Green John Martin 766 1.5 New
Majority 458 0.9 −10.5
Turnout 50,903 73.6 +2.7
Liberal Democrats hold Swing −5.3

References

  1. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "I"
  2. ↑ "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  3. ↑ "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  4. ↑ "Closest Three- and Four-Way Marginals since 1918". Retrieved 28 May 2009.
  5. ↑ "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  6. ↑ "Politics Resources". Election 1992. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
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