Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (UK Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Scottish Parliament constituency) or Caithness, Sutherland and Ross (Scottish Parliament constituency).

Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross
County constituency for the House of Commons
120px Boundary of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross in Scotland.
County	Highland
Current constituency
Created	1997
Member of parliament	Paul Monaghan (SNP)
Created from	Caithness & Sutherland and Ross, Cromarty & Skye
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	Scotland

Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster). It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election.

Boundaries

The constituency was created in 1997 by merging Caithness and Sutherland with an area from Ross, Cromarty and Skye which was abolished.

In 2005 the Westminster constituency was enlarged slightly, to include a small area from Ross, Skye and Inverness West. The rest of the latter was divided between two new constituencies, Ross, Skye and Lochaber and Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey.

Local government area

See also Politics of the Highland council area

Since it was created in 1997 the constituency has been one of three covering the Highland council area. Since 2005 the other two have been Ross, Skye and Lochaber and Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey. From 1997 to 2005 the other constituencies of the council area were Ross, Skye and Inverness West and Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber. Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross is the most northerly of the constituencies, and it now has the Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency on its southern boundary.

As enlarged in 2005, the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross constituency covered 23 out of the 80 wards of the council area: all ten wards of the Caithness area committee, all six wards of the Sutherland area committee and seven (Alness and Ardross, Invergordon, Ferindonald, Rosskeen and Saltburn, Seaboard, Tain East and Tain West) out of the 18 wards of the Ross and Cromarty area committee.

Further information: Highland Council wards 1999 to 2007

Ward boundaries were redrawn again in 2007, and the management areas were abolished in favour of three new corporate management areas. The new areas consist of groups of the new wards, and boundaries are similar to those of the Westminster constituencies, as defined in 2005. Two areas, the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross area and the Ross, Skye and Lochaber area, have the names of Westminster constituencies. The name of the third area, the Inverness, Nairn, and Badenoch and Strathspey area, is very similar to that of the third constituency.

Scottish Parliament

In 1999 a Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) constituency was created with the name and boundaries of the Westminster constituency.

For representation at Holyrood the area of the Westminster constituency is divided between two slightly smaller constituencies, Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross and Ross, Skye and Inverness West.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1997	Robert Maclennan	Liberal Democrat
	2001	John Thurso	Liberal Democrat
	2015	Paul Monaghan	Scottish National Party

Election results

Elections of the 2010s

General Election 2015: Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Paul Monaghan	15,831	46.3	+27.1
	Liberal Democrat	John Thurso	11,987	35.1	-6.3
	Labour	John Erskine	3,061	9.0	-15.7
	Conservative	Alastair Graham	2,326	6.8	-6.2
	UKIP	Annie Murray	981	2.9	N/A
Majority			3,844	11.2	n/a
Turnout			34,186	71.9	+11.0
	SNP gain from Liberal Democrat		Swing	+16.7

General Election 2010: Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	John Thurso	11,907	41.4	−9.1
	Labour	John Mackay	7,081	24.6	+3.7
	SNP	Jean Urquhart	5,516	19.2	+5.8
	Conservative	Alastair Graham	3,744	13.0	+2.8
	Independent	Gordon Campbell	520	1.8	−1.3
Majority			4,826	16.8
Turnout			28,768	60.9	+1.5
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing	−6.4

Elections of the 2000s

Note: The constituency was slightly enlarged in 2005. Therefore +/- percentages are somewhat notional.

General Election 2005: Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	John Thurso	13,957	50.5	+11.9
	Labour	Alan Jamieson	5,789	20.9	−3.4
	SNP	Karen Shirron	3,686	13.3	−7.0
	Conservative	Angus Ross	2,835	10.2	−3.3
	Independent	Gordon Campbell	848	3.1	+2.3
	Scottish Socialist	Luke Ivory	548	2.0	−0.2
Majority			8,168	29.5
Turnout			27,663	59.1	−2.0
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing	+7.6

General Election 2001: Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	John Thurso	9,041	36.4	+0.8
	Labour	Michael Meighan	6,297	25.3	−2.5
	SNP	John MacAdam	5,273	21.2	−1.8
	Conservative	Robert Rowantree	3,513	14.1	+3.3
	Scottish Socialist	Karn Mabon	544	2.2	N/A
	Independent	Gordon Campbell	199	0.8	N/A
Majority			2,744	11.1
Turnout			24,867	60.2	−9.8
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing

Elections of the 1990s

General Election 1997: Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Robert Maclennan	10,381	35.6	N/A
	Labour	James Hendry	8,122	27.8	N/A
	SNP	Euan Harper	6,710	23.0	N/A
	Conservative	Tom Miers	3,148	10.8	N/A
	Referendum	Carolyn Ryder	369	1.3	N/A
	Scottish Green	John Martin	230	0.8	N/A
	UKIP	Martin Carr	212	0.7	N/A
Majority			2,259	7.7	N/A
Turnout			29,172	70.2	N/A
	Liberal Democrat win (new seat)