Gordon (UK Parliament constituency)

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

Gordon is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster), which elects one member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The constituency was first contested at the 1983 UK general election; but has undergone boundary changes since then.

Gordon
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Gordon in Scotland
Subdivisions of Scotland	Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City
Major settlements	Dyce, Huntly, Insch, Inverurie
Current constituency
Created	1983
Member of Parliament	Richard Thomson (SNP)
Created from	East Aberdeenshire and West Aberdeenshire^[1]
Replaced by	Gordon and Buchan

The constituency has been represented since 2019 by Richard Thomson of the Scottish National Party.

Previously, the constituency was represented by Colin Clark of the Scottish Conservatives, who gained the seat from former Scottish First Minister and former SNP leader Alex Salmond at the 2017 snap election- which overall saw the best Conservative Party result in Scotland for 34 years; with 13 MPs returned.

Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat will be subject to boundary changes, losing the parts in the Aberdeen City council area, partly offset by the addition of part of the (to be abolished) constituency of Banff and Buchan. As a consequence, it will be renamed Gordon and Buchan, to be first contested at the next general election.^[2]

Boundaries

 

Map of current boundaries

1983–1997: Gordon District, and the City of Aberdeen District electoral divisions of East Don and West Don.

1997–2005: The Gordon District electoral divisions of East Gordon, Formartine, Garioch, Inverurie, Kintore and Newmachar, and West Gordon, the Banff and Buchan District electoral division of Lower Deveron and Upper Ythan, and the Moray District electoral division of Keith-Strathisla.

2005–present: The Aberdeenshire Council wards of Tarves, Ythan, Ellon Town, Logie Buchan, Meldrum, Udny-Slains, Belhelvie, Insch, Chapel and Gadie, Inverurie North, Inverurie Central, Inverurie South and Port Elphinstone, Kintore and Keithhall, Newmachar and Fintray, Huntly West, Huntly East, and Strathbogie, and the Aberdeen City Council wards of Pitmedden, Bankhead/Stoneywood, Danestone, Jesmond, Oldmachar, and Bridge of Don.

New boundaries were used for the 2005 general election. Prior to that election the constituency covered a central portion of the Aberdeenshire council area and a small eastern portion of the Moray council area. As a result of the 2005 boundary changes, in accordance with the Fifth Periodical Report of the Boundary Commission for Scotland,^[3] the Gordon constituency is now one of five covering the Aberdeenshire council area and the Aberdeen City council area.

The Gordon constituency now covers a central portion of the Aberdeenshire area and a northern portion of the Aberdeen City council area. Entirely within the Aberdeenshire council area, there is also Banff and Buchan, to the north of Gordon, and West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, to the south. Entirely within the Aberdeen City council area, there is also Aberdeen North, to the south of Gordon, and Aberdeen South, further south.

The towns of Ellon, Huntly and Inverurie remain within the constituency.

Keith (within the Moray council area) was transferred to the Moray constituency, Turriff was transferred to the Banff and Buchan constituency, and Kemnay and Westhill were transferred to the West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine constituency.

The Bridge of Don and Dyce areas (within the Aberdeen City council area) were transferred to the Gordon constituency from the Aberdeen North constituency.

Constituency profile and voting patterns

 

Gordon Square, Huntly.

Constituency profile

An affluent, semi-rural constituency spanning across central Aberdeenshire and northern Aberdeen, the Gordon constituency is among the least deprived and highest-earning seats in Scotland,^[4][5] with a high proportion of skilled and professional workers.^[6]

The constituency covers the A90 and A96 corridors in Aberdeenshire north of Aberdeen, covering the towns of Huntly, Inverurie and Kintore situated along the Valleys of the River Don in the region of Garioch, and the towns of Ellon and Oldmeldrum in Formartine. The boundaries of the constituency stretch south into Aberdeen to the south-east, to cover the city's northern suburbs of Bankhead, Bridge of Don, Danestone and Dyce.

Oil, agriculture and tourism form an important part of the local economy, with most of the constituency's settlements around Aberdeen serving as commuter territory for the city, including the towns of Inverurie and Kintore and the villages of Balmedie and Newmachar, where there is rapid population growth, with many areas seeing their population double within the last decade. Various energy companies have representations in Dyce and Bridge of Don, among which are EMS Oil and GE Oil and Gas. The constituency also covers Aberdeen International Airport in Dyce, Scotland's third-busiest airport by passenger numbers. Huntly, approximately 40 miles north-west of Aberdeen, is the historic home of the Gordon Highlanders regiment and is the site of Huntly Castle, the ancestral home of the chief of Clan Gordon. Huntly is also the headquarters of Dean's bakers, who produce shortbread. Ellon, approximately 16 miles north of Aberdeen, is a coastal resort sitting on the mouth of the River Ythan. On the outskirts of the town is a brewery owned by BrewDog.

Voting patterns

In the UK Parliament, Gordon was traditionally a Liberal-Conservative marginal. The constituency's predecessor seats of East Aberdeenshire and West Aberdeenshire were previously represented by the Conservatives. When Gordon was first formed in 1983, it was narrowly won by Malcolm Bruce of the Liberals, with a slender majority of 850 votes. Bruce subsequently increased his majority tenfold in 1987, before seeing it cut to just 274 in 1992, in new boundaries which benefited the Conservative Party. Since the Conservatives' landslide defeat in 1997, Gordon had returned Bruce of the Liberal Democrats with an increasing strong majority until Richard Thomson of the Scottish National Party cut his majority down by nearly 4,000 votes in 2010. In the nationwide SNP landslide victory in 2015, Salmond, former First Minister of Scotland and SNP Leader, gained the seat for the SNP with a majority of 8,687 votes ahead of the Liberal Democrats; with Bruce standing down. Salmond previously represented the coterminous Gordon constituency in the Scottish Parliament from 2007 until his retirement from the Scottish Parliament in 2016.

In the Scottish Parliament, Gordon was first represented by Nora Radcliffe of the Liberal Democrats in 1999. The constituency was a three-way marginal between the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and SNP. Alex Salmond gained the constituency in 2007 with a 2,000 majority, increasing it to over 15,000 votes in 2011. More recently the Conservatives have made a strong comeback in Gordon, gaining the overlapping Aberdeenshire West constituency in 2016, and coming second behind the SNP in the overlapping constituencies of Aberdeen Donside and Aberdeenshire East.

At the 2016 European Union membership referendum, the Gordon constituency is estimated to have voted to Remain within the European Union on a margin of 55.5% Remain 44.5% Leave, an above-average Leave vote relative to the rest of Scotland.

The Scottish Conservatives took the most votes in the area at the 2017 local council elections, prompting party leader Ruth Davidson to say on a visit to Inverurie that "We won the local government election in Gordon this week, beating the SNP into second place. It means that in this seat, as in many others, it is a two-horse race between us and the [Scottish] Nationalists."^[7] In response to Davidson's comments, the SNP MP for Gordon at the time, Alex Salmond said: “It’s just arrogance, for Ruth Davidson to continue the line of ‘we’re going to take this seat, and we’re going to take that seat’. Once it doesn't happen, it's very bad news for Ruth Davidson's credibility.”^[8]

Salmond was later unseated by Conservative Colin Clark at the 2017 snap election on 8 June. The swing to the Conservatives was 20.4%, the party's largest swing in the whole of Britain. The defeat of Salmond was a bitter blow to SNP activists in the North East who characterised it to The Guardian as, “So disrespectful”, “How could local people do that to him?”^[9]

However, in the 2019 election, Richard Thomson narrowly regained the seat for the SNP with a majority of 819 (1.4%), meaning the seat remains an SNP-Conservative marginal.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member^[10]	Party
	1983	Sir Malcolm Bruce	Liberal
	1988		Liberal Democrat
	2015	Alex Salmond	SNP
	2017	Colin Clark	Conservative
	2019	Richard Thomson	SNP

Election results

 

Gordon election results

Elections in the 2010s

General election 2019: Gordon^{[11][12][13][14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Richard Thomson	23,885	42.7	+6.8
	Conservative	Colin Clark	23,066	41.3	+0.6
	Liberal Democrats	James Oates	5,913	10.6	−1.0
	Labour	Heather Herbert	3,052	5.5	−6.3
Majority			819	1.4	N/A
Turnout			55,916	70.2	+1.8
	SNP gain from Conservative		Swing	+3.2

General election 2017: Gordon^[15]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Colin Clark	21,861	40.7	+29.0
	SNP	Alex Salmond^[16]	19,254	35.9	−11.8
	Labour	Kirsten Muat^[17]	6,340	11.8	+5.9
	Liberal Democrats	David Evans^[18]	6,230	11.6	−21.1
Majority			2,607	4.8	N/A
Turnout			53,740	68.4	−4.9
	Conservative gain from SNP		Swing	+20.4

This was the largest swing towards the Conservatives within the United Kingdom at the 2017 general election.

See also: Opinion polling in United Kingdom constituencies, 2010–15 § Gordon

General election 2015: Gordon^[19]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Alex Salmond^[20]	27,717	47.7	+25.5
	Liberal Democrats	Christine Jardine	19,030	32.7	−3.3
	Conservative	Colin Clark	6,807	11.7	−7.0
	Labour	Braden Davy	3,441	5.9	−14.2
	UKIP	Emily Santos^[21]	1,166	2.0	New
Majority			8,687	15.0	N/A
Turnout			58,161	73.3	+6.9
	SNP gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing	+14.4

General election 2010: Gordon^[22]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Malcolm Bruce	17,575	36.0	−9.0
	SNP	Richard Thomson	10,827	22.2	+6.2
	Labour	Barney Crockett	9,811	20.1	−0.1
	Conservative	Ross Thomson	9,111	18.7	+1.1
	Scottish Green	Sue Edwards	752	1.5	New
	BNP	Elise Jones	699	1.4	New
Majority			6,748	13.8	−9.0
Turnout			48,755	66.4	+4.6
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing	−7.6

Elections of the 2000s

General election 2005: Gordon^[23]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Malcolm Bruce	20,008	45.0	+6.2
	Labour	Iain Brotchie	8,982	20.2	−1.3
	Conservative	Philip Atkinson	7,842	17.6	−1.4
	SNP	Joanna Strathdee	7,098	16.0	−3.3
	Scottish Socialist	Tommy Paterson	508	1.1	−0.4
Majority			11,026	24.8	+19.9
Turnout			44,438	61.8	+5.2
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing	+3.8

Before the 2005 general election, Scotland went through major boundary changes.

General election 2001: Gordon^[24]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Malcolm Bruce	17,928	48.5	+5.9
	Conservative	Nanette Milne	8,049	21.8	−4.2
	SNP	Rhona Kemp	5,760	15.6	−4.4
	Labour	Ellis Thorpe	4,730	12.8	+2.5
	Scottish Socialist	John Sangster	534	1.4	New
Majority			9,879	27.7	+11.1
Turnout			35,001	58.3	−13.6
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Elections of the 1990s

General election 1997: Gordon^[25]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Malcolm Bruce	17,999	42.6	+15.4 ^[26]
	Conservative	John Porter	11,002	26.0	−22.0
	SNP	Richard Lochhead	8,435	20.0	+1.4
	Labour	Lindsey Kirkhill	4,350	10.3	+4.0
	Referendum	Fred Pidcock	459	1.1	New
Majority			6,997	16.6	+16.1
Turnout			42,245	71.9	−2.4
	Liberal Democrats win

Notional general election of 1992^[27]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative		19,596	48.0
	Liberal Democrats		11,110	27.2
	SNP		7,593	18.6
	Labour		2,561	6.3
Majority			8,486	20.8

General election 1992: Gordon^[28]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Malcolm Bruce	22,158	37.4	−12.0
	Conservative	John Porter	21,884	37.0	+5.1
	SNP	Brian Adam	8,445	14.3	+7.1
	Labour	Peter Morrell	6,682	11.3	−0.2
Majority			274	0.4	-17.1
Turnout			59,169	74.3	+0.6
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Elections of the 1980s

General election 1987: Gordon^[29]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Malcolm Bruce	26,770	49.4	+5.6
	Conservative	Peter Leckie	17,251	31.9	−10.1
	Labour	Morag Morrell	6,228	11.5	+3.0
	SNP	George Wright	3,876	7.2	+1.5
Majority			9,519	17.5	+15.7
Turnout			54,125	73.7	+3.6
	Liberal hold		Swing

General election 1983: Gordon^[30]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Malcolm Bruce	20,134	43.8	+13.1
	Conservative	James Cran	19,284	42.0	+0.2
	Labour	George Grant	3,899	8.5	−5.7
	SNP	Kenneth Guild	2,636	5.7	−7.6
Majority			850	1.8	N/A
Turnout			45,953	70.1
	Liberal win (new seat)

References

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2. Boundary Commission Scotland 2023 Review Report
3. . Boundary Commission for Scotland. Archived from the original on 9 October 2007.
4. "SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) 2016".
5. . Archived from the original on 29 November 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
6. GROS. "Area Profiles - Census Data Explorer - Scotland's Census". www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk.
7. icebomb.co.uk, Marc - (6 May 2017). "Ruth takes fightback to Gordon constituency - Scottish Conservatives".
8. "Alex Salmond: 'arrogant' Ruth Davidson's bubble has burst". www.scotsman.com.
9. Carrell, Severin (27 June 2017). "Moray: 'We are fed up with the SNP. It's as simple as that'". The Guardian.
11. "General Election 2019". Aberdeenshire Council. Aberdeenshire Council. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
12. "Gordon parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". Retrieved 15 December 2019.
13. Savege, Jim (12 December 2019). (PDF). Aberdeenshire Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 April 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
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15. "Commons Briefing Paper 7979. General Election 2017: results and analysis" (PDF) (Second ed.). House of Commons Library. 29 January 2019 [7 April 2018]. (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2019.
16. . www.scotsman.com. Archived from the original on 25 April 2017. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
17. . www.scottishlabour.org.uk. Archived from the original on 8 May 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
18. "Lib Dems announce candidate to stand against Alex Salmond". Press and Journal.
19. . Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
20. "Ex-SNP leader Alex Salmond announces he is to stand for UK Parliament". BBC News. 7 December 2014.
21. "UK Polling Report". ukpollingreport.co.uk.
22. . Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
23. . Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
24. . Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
25. . Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
26. "General Election Results, 1 May 1997" (PDF). House of Commons Library. 1998. (PDF) from the original on 21 October 2020.
27. "Media Guide to the New Parliament Constituencies", compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, Local Government Chronicle Elections Centre, 1995, p. 87
28. . Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
29. . Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
30. . Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.

56°58′08″N 3°10′41″W / 56.969°N 3.178°W / 56.969; -3.178