(; ), formerly Western Isles, is a

constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

, created in 1918. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the

first past the post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

system of election. It has been represented since

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

by Torcuil Crichton of

Scottish Labour Scottish Labour (), is the part of the UK Labour Party (UK), Labour Party active in Scotland. Ideologically social democratic and Unionism in the United Kingdom, unionist, it holds 23 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 37 of 57 Sco ...

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

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

for the Western Isles, which was the constituency's name prior to the 2005 general election. An identical constituency with the same name is used by the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( ; ) is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. It is located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of Edinburgh, and is frequently referred to by the metonym 'Holyrood'. ...

. With around 21,000 registered voters, it has the smallest electorate of any constituency in the United Kingdom. It is expressly protected from being combined with other constituencies by the

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 (c. 1) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made provision for the holding of a referendum on whether to introduce the Alternative Vote system in all future general e ...

History and boundaries

The constituency area is that of the

Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an Archipelago, island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islan ...

, known also as , and has remained unchanged since its creation under the

Representation of the People Act 1918 The Representation of the People Act 1918 ( 7 & 8 Geo. 5. c. 64) was an act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in Great Britain and Ireland. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act. The act extended the franchise in pa ...

for the general election of that year. It is currently defined as being coterminous with the area of

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar for, gd, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, italic=no, Council of the Western Isles, paren=left; ) is the Local government in Scotland, local authority for ''Na h-Eileanan an Iar'' (the Western Isles, also known as the Outer Hebrides), one of the 32 co ...

, previously known as the

Western Isles The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islands form part ...

Islands Area before 1996. Prior to the creation of the

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

, the constituency was divided between the two historic counties of

Ross and Cromarty Ross and Cromarty (), is an area in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. In modern usage, it is a registration county and a Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. Between 1889 and 1975 it was a Shires of Scotland, county. Historical ...

and

Inverness-shire Inverness-shire () or the County of Inverness, is a Counties of Scotland, historic county in Scotland. It is named after Inverness, its largest settlement, which was also the county town. Covering much of the Scottish Highlands, Highlands and s ...

and was defined as comprising: * the burgh of

Stornoway Stornoway (; ) is the main town, and by far the largest, of the Outer Hebrides (or Western Isles), and the capital of Lewis and Harris in Scotland. The town's population is around 6,953, making it the third-largest island town in Scotlan ...

; * the district of Lewis in Ross and Cromarty; and * the districts of

Barra Barra (; or ; ) is an island in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, and the second southernmost inhabited island there, after the adjacent island of Vatersay to which it is connected by the Vatersay Causeway. In 2011, the population was 1,174. ...

, Harris,

North Uist North Uist (; ) is an island and community in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Etymology In Donald Munro's ''A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland Called Hybrides'' of 1549, North Uist, Benbecula and South Uist are described as one isla ...

and

South Uist South Uist (, ; ) is the second-largest island of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. At the 2011 census, it had a usually resident population of 1,754: a decrease of 64 since 2001. The island, in common with the rest of the Hebrides, is one of the ...

in Inverness-shire.

Status

The constituency has the smallest

electorate Electorate may refer to: * The people who are eligible to vote in an election, especially their number e.g. the term ''size of (the) electorate'' * The dominion of a prince-elector in the Holy Roman Empire until 1806 * An electoral district ...

in the United Kingdom, just over one quarter of the size of the electoral quota under the

2023 review of Westminster constituencies The 2023 review of Westminster constituencies was the most recent cycle of the process to redraw the constituency map for the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The new constituency boundaries were approved by the Privy Council on 15 Nov ...

. It has been suggested that could be combined with the Orkney and Shetland constituency; the resulting combined electorate would still be well below the average constituency quota. The Scottish Boundary Commission in 1980 proposed that the seat should be extended to include the Skye and Lochalsh areas; this was overturned at a public enquiry. Generally, considerations of geographical size, a disparate population and 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 a rule which forbade Orkney or Shetland being combined with another council area. The

, as amended by the

Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020 The Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020 (c. 25) is an Act of parliament, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It amends the regulations underpinning the parliamentary boundary review process as set out under the Parliamentary Constitue ...

, prevented being combined with any other constituency by designating it as a protected constituency, alongside

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

(two seats), Orkney and Shetland, and Ynys Môn.

Electoral history

From its creation in 1918 until the 1935 general election, the seat was held by Liberal MPs of varying descriptions. In 1935, the seat was captured by

Malcolm Macmillan Malcolm Kenneth Macmillan (21 August 1913 – 17 November 1978) was a Scottish Labour Party politician and journalist. At the 1935 general election, at the age of 22, he was elected as the Member of Parliament for the Western Isles. He join ...

of the Labour Party, who would go on to retain the seat for the following 35 years. Macmillan was defeated at the 1970 general election by the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

candidate Donald Stewart – who thus became the first SNP member to be represented at Westminster. Since 1970, the seat has alternated between SNP and Labour. Stewart held the seat until he stood down for the 1987 general election, when the seat was regained for Labour by Calum MacDonald. In 2005 it became a

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both. With such seats, there is very little chance of a seat changing h ...

for the Scottish National Party, with the election of Angus MacNeil. This trend was reversed in the 2017 general election, when the SNP suffered a swing against them for the first time since

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

, but at the 2019 general election the constituency became a

for the SNP again. In August 2023, MacNeil was expelled from the SNP, having earlier lost the parliamentary whip. At the 2024 general election he stood as an independent gaining 10% of the vote, helping to swing the seat heavily to Labour, represented by Torcuil Crichton. For the Conservatives, their vote had increased in recent years, since losing their deposit in the 2005 and 2010 elections, but they lost their deposit once again at the 2024 election. During the

2014 Scottish independence referendum A independence referendum, referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom was held in Scotland on 18 September 2014. The referendum question was "Should Scotland be an independent country?", which voters answered with "Yes" or ...

the constituency voted against independence by a margin of 53.42% (10,544) to 46.58% (9,195) in favour on a turnout of 86.2% The constituency is notable for having the highest percentage of

speakers of any constituency in the world.

Members of Parliament

Election results

Elections in the 2020s

Elections in the 2010s

MacNeil was suspended from the SNP in July 2023. He had decided to sit as an independent MP after having an argument with the SNP

Chief Whip The Chief Whip is a political leader whose task is to enforce the whipping system, which aims to ensure that legislators who are members of a political party attend and vote on legislation as the party leadership prescribes. United Kingdom I ...

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

Elections in the 1970s

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1950s

Elections in the 1940s

Elections in the 1930s

Elections in the 1920s

Elections in the 1910s

References

External links

Na h-Eileanan an Iar UK Parliament constituency
(boundaries April 2005 – May 2024) at ''MapIt UK''

(boundaries from June 2024) at ''MapIt UK'' {{Coord, 57.671, -6.953, display=title, region:GB_scale:500000 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1918 Westminster Parliamentary constituencies in Scotland Politics of the county of Inverness Politics of the county of Ross and Cromarty