Na h-Eileanan an Iar (formerly Western Isles) pron is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, created in 1918. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

History

The constituency was formed by merging together areas which were formerly within the Ross and Cromarty constituency and the Inverness-shire constituency.

Na h-Eileanan an Iar is derived from the Gaelic for Western Isles, which was the constituency's name prior to the 2005 general election. A similar constituency, called Western Isles, is used by the Scottish Parliament.

Boundaries

The constituency area is that of the Outer Hebrides, known also as Na h-Eileanan Siar, and the constituency has the smallest electorate in the United Kingdom, one-fifth of the size of the largest, the Isle of Wight, with the latter also being an island constituency. However the Isle of Wight is a substantially smaller parliamentary constituency in geographical terms. It has been suggested that Na h-Eileanan an Iar could be combined with the Orkney and Shetland constituency: the resulting combined electorate would still be well below the average constituency quota. Meanwhile the Scottish Boundary commission in 1980 originally proposed that the seat should be extended to include the Skye and Lochalsh areas, however this was overturned at a public enquiry. Generally, overriding considerations of sheer geographical size, a disparate population and of convenience for the MPs concerned as well as tradition and identity have tended to override the arguments about numerical imbalance. Furthermore, a change in the Boundary Commission's rules in 2000 added rule 3a which forbids Orkney or Shetland being combined with another council area.

Local government areas

When created the area of the constituency was divided between two local government areas, the counties of Ross and Cromarty and Inverness-shire. The division line was the Lewis-Harris boundary, with Lewis in Ross and Cromarty and Harris in Inverness-shire.

In 1975 the constituency area became also an island council area, known as the Western Isles council area. That same area became one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland in 1996. The council area is known also as Na h-Eileanan Siar.

Politics

The seat has been a two-way marginal between the Labour Party and the Scottish National Party for many years. In the 2005 UK general election, together with Blaenau Gwent, it was one of only two seats (outside Northern Ireland) in which the Conservative Party lost their deposit.

Members of Parliament

Election results

1910s

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

See also

References