Central Ayrshire (UK Parliament constituency)

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Central Ayrshire is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in the south-west of Scotland within the North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire council areas. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system of voting. It has been represented since 2024 by Alan Gemmell of Scottish Labour.

Boundaries

1950–1974: The burghs of Irvine, Kilwinning, Stewarton and Troon, the districts of Irvine and Kilbirnie, the electoral division of Dundonald in the district of Ayr, and the electoral division of Dunlop and Stewarton in the district of Kilmarnock.^[1]

1974–1983: The burghs of Irvine, Kilwinning and Troon, the districts of Irvine and Kilbirnie and the electoral division of Dundonald in the district of Ayr.^[2]

2005–present: Under the Fifth Review of UK Parliament constituencies, the constituency contained parts of the North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire Councils; the boundaries were defined in accordance with the ward structure in place on 30 November 2004. Under the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the boundaries were unchanged.^[3]

Further to reviews of local government ward boundaries which came into effect in 2007 and 2017, but did not affect the parliamentary boundaries, the contents of the constituency are now defined as follows: ^[4]

In full: the North Ayrshire Council wards of Irvine East, Irvine South, and Irvine West; and the South Ayrshire Council wards of Kyle, Prestwick, and Troon.
In part: the North Ayrshire Council ward of Kilwinning (small southeastern area); and the South Ayrshire Council wards of Ayr North (Woodfield area of Ayr), and Maybole, North Carrick and Coylton (very small area).^[5]

Constituency profile

The constituency covers towns such as Irvine and parts of Kilwinning to the north, as well as the coastal resorts of Troon and Prestwick to the south. The seat also takes in a set of villages in rural South Ayrshire including the former mining communities of Annbank, Mossblown and Tarbolton alongside the villages of Loans, Dundonald and Symington.

Irvine was designated in the 1970s as a Glasgow overspill new town. In recent local council elections, the SNP have performed strongly in the town of Irvine gaining 3 Councillors to Labours 5 in Irvine and Kilwinning wards.

The coastal towns of Prestwick and Troon join the town as part of the constituency as well as outlying rural areas located south and east of Troon and Prestwick: Prestwick, Troon and their hinterlands have sustained a considerable level of support for Conservative candidates locally and as part of the Ayr constituency in the Scottish Parliament. Heathfield in Ayr North also forms part of the constituency: this area is relatively small but has been more supportive of the SNP in recent council elections.

History

As created in 1950, the constituency merged parts of the Bute and Northern Ayrshire and Kilmarnock constituencies. Following the Representation of the People Act 1948, the Central Ayrshire constituency between 1950 and 1955 consisted of Irvine, Kilwinning, Stewarton, Troon, Kilbirnie and part of the district of Kilmarnock.^[6] When abolished in 1983, the constituency was largely replaced by Cunninghame South, with Troon and its surrounding areas forming part of the Ayr constituency.

The constituency was re-established in 2005, centred around the historic burgh of Irvine and stretching north to cover part of Kilwinning and south to cover the coastal resort towns of Prestwick, Troon and their adjacent hinterlands alongside part of Ayr. The constituency covers the 2017 electoral wards of Irvine East, Irvine South, Irvine West and a small section of Kilwinning (between the River Garnock and the B778) from the North Ayrshire Council area and Prestwick, Troon, Kyle and a small section of Ayr North (between Seaforth Road and Lochside Road in Heathfield) from the South Ayrshire Council area.^[7] The remainder of the North Ayrshire Council area is represented as part of the North Ayrshire and Arran Parliamentary constituency, with the remainder of South Ayrshire being covered by the Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock Parliamentary constituency alongside parts of East Ayrshire.

The boundaries were unchanged by the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies.^[8]

Election history

The seat has mostly elected Labour Party MPs since the 1950s, with the former MP Brian Donohoe having represented the seat since its creation in 2005, and was MP for the predecessor seat of Cunninghame South since the 1992 general election. He lost his seat at the 2015 general election during an SNP landslide in Scotland, in which the SNP's Philippa Whitford was elected with a majority of 13,589 votes. At the 2017 local election the Conservatives were well ahead in Prestwick and Troon in South Ayrshire, with the SNP finishing first in Irvine in North Ayrshire. Philippa Whitford returned as the Member of Parliament for the Central Ayrshire constituency at the 2017 general election with a significantly reduced majority of 1,267 votes (2.8%) ahead of Conservative challenger Caroline Hollins-Martin.^[9] At the 2019 UK election, Philippa Whitford was returned as Member of Parliament for the third time, increasing her majority to 5,304 votes (11.4%). Labour came from a poor third place in 2019 to regain the seat at the 2024 general election, with Alan Gemmell being elected with a majority of 16.6% over the SNP, achieved with a swing of nearly 25%.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member^[10]	Party
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1950	Archie Manuel	Labour
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1955	Douglas Spencer-Nairn	Unionist
rowspan="2" style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1959	Archie Manuel	Labour
1970	David Lambie		Labour
1983		constituency abolished: see Ayr and Cunninghame South
2005		constituency created, see Ayr, Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley and Cunninghame South
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	2005	Brian Donohoe	Labour
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	2015	Philippa Whitford	Scottish National Party
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	2024	Alan Gemmell	Labour