Latest headlines
-
Victory for the SNP with 63 seats - two short of a majority
-
Conservatives are the second largest party on 31 seats - but Labour on 24 lost 13 seats
-
Scottish Greens are the fourth largest party with six seats, ahead of the Lib Dems who won five
-
See the changing political map of Scotland
Scoreboard
| Party | Candidates | Votes | % | Net percentage change in seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Party
SNP Scottish National Party |
Candidates Willie Coffey | Votes 19,047 | 55.4% | Net percentage change in seats +2.1 |
|
Party
LAB Scottish Labour |
Candidates Dave Meechan | Votes 7,853 | 22.8% | Net percentage change in seats −11.6 |
|
Party
CON Scottish Conservatives |
Candidates Brian Whittle | Votes 6,597 | 19.2% | Net percentage change in seats +8.8 |
|
Party
LD Scottish Lib Dems |
Candidates Rebecca Plenderleith | Votes 888 | 2.6% | Net percentage change in seats +0.7 |
|
Change compared with 2011 |
||||
Turnout and Majority
Scottish National Party Majority
11,194Turnout
54.9%Constituency Profile
Kilmarnock is by far the largest town in this constituency and is home to both heavy and light engineering plants and meat-canning factories.
The smaller towns east of Kilmarnock, namely Galston, Hurlford, Newmilns and Darvel, grew up on textile manufacturing, carpet, knitwear and the shoe industries. Unemployment here is higher than the average for Scotland and the Johnnie Walker whisky bottling factory closed in 2012. The seat is famously associated with Alexander Fleming, who was born in Darvel, and discovered the antibiotic penicillin. This part of Ayrshire is also associated with poet Robert Burns, whose first book of poems was published in Kilmarnock.
Labour’s Margaret Jamieson had been the victor in the 1999 and 2003 elections. In 2007, the SNP’s Willie Coffey won the seat – which was reconfigured under boundary changes, and he retained it in Scottish Parliament election of 2011.