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| Thursday, 7 February, 2002, 18:27 GMT Political landscape set to change ![]() Scotland's representation in the Commons will change The Boundary Commission has released details of plans to reduce the number of Scottish constituencies at Westminster. Click on the links for information about your area: The Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland: Despite having just 21,884 voters, the Western Isles constituency will not change its area - though it will change its name to Na h-Eileanan An Iar. The Orkney and Shetland seat also remains unchanged despite only having 32,181 voters at the last election. The Boundary Commission for Scotland has decided to maintain a separate constituency for the area given its "detached nature". The Highlands retains three seats but the boundaries have been redrawn. The constituencies will be named: Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross; Inverness and Badenoch; and Ross, Skye and Lochaber. The Aberdeen Central seat will disappear, leaving the city divided into just two constituencies - Aberdeen North and Aberdeen South.
They will be Banff, Buchan and Huntly; Gordon; West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine; and Moray. Dundee keeps two seats - Dundee East and Dundee West, but Tayside North disappears into an expanded Angus and a new Perth and Atholl seat. The Scottish National Party's Tayside North MP Pete Wishart could find himself fighting party colleagues Michael Weir (Angus) and Annabelle Ewing (Perth) for a seat. However, a redrawn Dundee East seat and the new Strathearn and Ochil constituency could be SNP targets. The Chancellor Gordon Brown's Dunfermline East seat will be torn in two. Much of his constituency will be absorbed into the new Dunfermline and West Fife seat, with the rest moving into Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. It is believed that the current Kirkcaldy MP Dr Lewis Moonie would be prepared to move aside to allow Mr Brown to stand in that constituency. The Ochil constituency expands northwards to become Strathearn and Ochil. Falkirk will lose one of its two seats. Parts of the Falkirk East seat will go into expanded Livingston and Linlithgow constituencies. Stirling remains unchanged. Perth extends north to become Perth and Atholl. Argyll and Bute expands to cover its local authority area. Five seats across the south of Scotland have been amalgamated into three. The new constituencies are Dumfries and Galloway; Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk; and Peebles, Clydesdale and Annandale. This will be bad news for the Liberal Democrats who hold two seats in the Borders which effectively be merged. Edinburgh will lose one of its five seats. Work and Pensions Minister Alistair Darling will see his Edinburgh Central constituency vanish. The Edinburgh Pentlands constituency has been split between the new South and West Edinburgh seats. Edinburgh will also have North West and North East constituencies in a completely redrawn city map. The Linlithgow and Livingston constituencies will expand. Midlothian expands to include Penicuik and East Lothian will win back Musselburgh. The 10 constituencies in Glasgow will shrink to seven in a completely changed map of the city. North of the River Clyde five seats will shrink into four with George Galloway's Kelvin seat looking like the odd one out. South of the river three seats become two with Mohammad Sarwar's Govan constituency being the one that least fits. In the east, Shettleston is absorbed by its neighbours, mainly the new Glasgow central seat which also takes in former Kelvin and Govan areas. Glasgow Rutherglen disappears into the redrawn Lanarkshire map, which will see Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid's Hamilton North and Bellshill constituency vanish. Scottish Secretary Helen Liddell's Airdrie and Shotts constituency remains. The Clydebank and Milngavie constituency will be absorbed into the expanded neighbouring seats of West Dunbartonshire and Bearsden, Bishopbriggs and Kirkintilloch. Eastwood and Inverclyde remain untouched. Ayrshire will lose one of its five seats, making for another battle between Labour MPs, including Scotland Office Minister George Foulkes. The Renfrewshire West constituency will disappear as the seats around Paisley are redrawn. | See also: Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Scotland stories now: Links to more Scotland stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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