Dunfermline (Scottish Parliament constituency)
| Dunfermline | |
|---|---|
| County constituency for the Scottish Parliament | |
Dunfermline shown within the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region and the region shown within Scotland | |
| Electorate | 62,615 (2022)[1] |
| Current constituency | |
| Created | 2011 |
| Party | SNP |
| MSP | Shirley-Anne Somerville |
| Council area | Fife |
Dunfermline (Gaelic: Dùn Phàrlain) is a county constituency of the Scottish Parliament covering part of the council area of Fife.[2] It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. Under the additional-member electoral system used for elections to the Scottish Parliament, it is also one of nine constituencies in the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.[3] Created in 2011, it comprises parts of the former constituencies of Dunfermline East and Dunfermline West.[4]
Bill Walker narrowly won the seat for the Scottish National Party in 2011, however he resigned after being convicted of assault charges in 2013. This led to the 2013 Dunfermline by-election, in which Labour's Cara Hilton was elected, defeating the SNP's Shirley-Anne Somerville. However Somerville subsequently ousted Hilton in the 2016 election and was re-elected in 2021.
Electoral region
The other eight constituencies of the Mid Scotland and Fife region are: Clackmannanshire and Dunblane, Cowdenbeath, Kirkcaldy, Mid Fife and Glenrothes, Fife North East, Perthshire North, Perthshire South and Kinross-shire and Stirling.[3] The region covers all of the Clackmannanshire council area, all of the Fife council area, all of the Perth and Kinross council area and all of the Stirling council area.[5]
Constituency boundaries and council area
Fife is represented in the Scottish Parliament by five constituencies, Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, Mid Fife and Glenrothes and Fife North East.[6]
The Dunfermline constituency was created by the first periodic review of Scottish Parliament boundaries ahead of the 2011 Scottish Parliament election from the following electoral wards of Fife Council:[4][2]
- In full:
- In part:
- Rosyth (shared with Cowdenbeath)
At the second periodic review of Scottish Parliament boundaries in 2025 the seat boundaries were very slightly altered by a minor change of the boundary with the Cowdenbeath constituency in order to match ward boundaries (no electors were affected by this boundary change).[7]
Member of the Scottish Parliament
| Election | Member | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Bill Walker | SNP | |
| 2012 | Independent | ||
| 2013 | Cara Hilton | Labour | |
| 2016 | Shirley-Anne Somerville | SNP | |
Election results
2020s
| Party | Candidate | Constituency | Regional | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | ±% | Votes | % | ±% | |||
| SNP | Shirley-Anne Somerville[a] | 20,048 | 49.0 | 5.7 | 16,623 | 40.5 | 0.4 | |
| Labour | Julie MacDougall | 11,384 | 27.8 | 1.7 | 8,468 | 20.6 | 2.5 | |
| Conservative | Roz McCall | 6,314 | 15.4 | 2.2 | 7,884 | 19.2 | 0.8 | |
| Green | 3,432 | 8.4 | 3.0 | |||||
| Liberal Democrats | Aude Boubaker-Calder | 3,196 | 7.8 | 1.8 | 2,956 | 7.2 | 1.4 | |
| Alba | 772 | 1.9 | New | |||||
| All for Unity | 290 | 0.7 | New | |||||
| Scottish Family | 228 | 0.6 | New | |||||
| Abolish the Scottish Parliament | 97 | 0.2 | New | |||||
| Scottish Libertarian | 94 | 0.2 | New | |||||
| Freedom Alliance (UK) | 78 | 0.2 | New | |||||
| Reform UK | 62 | 0.2 | New | |||||
| UKIP | 42 | 0.1 | 1.6 | |||||
| Independent | Martin Keatings | 38 | 0.1 | New | ||||
| Renew | 16 | 0.0 | New | |||||
| Independent | Mercy Kamanja | 3 | 0.0 | New | ||||
| Majority | 8,664 | 21.2 | 7.4 | |||||
| Valid Votes | 40,942 | 41,083 | ||||||
| Invalid Votes | 167 | 77 | ||||||
| Turnout | 41,109 | 66.0 | 8.8 | 41,160 | 66.0 | 8.8 | ||
| SNP hold | Swing | |||||||
2010s
| Party | Candidate | Constituency | Region | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | ±% | Votes | % | ±% | |||
| SNP | Shirley-Anne Somerville | 14,257 | 43.3 | 5.7 | 13,223 | 40.1 | 0.9 | |
| Labour | Cara Hilton[b] | 9,699 | 29.5 | 6.1 | 7,634 | 23.1 | 8.8 | |
| Conservative | James Reekie | 5,797 | 17.6 | 10.5 | 6,597 | 20.0 | 12.2 | |
| Liberal Democrats | James Calder | 3,156 | 9.6 | 10.1 | 2,826 | 8.6 | 2.7 | |
| Green | 1,796 | 5.4 | 2.2 | |||||
| UKIP | 598 | 1.7 | 0.9 | |||||
| Solidarity | 138 | 0.4 | 0.3 | |||||
| RISE | 117 | 0.4 | New | |||||
| Scottish Libertarian | 60 | 0.2 | New | |||||
| Majority | 4,558 | 13.8 | 11.8 | |||||
| Valid Votes | 32,909 | 32,989 | ||||||
| Invalid Votes | 99 | 31 | ||||||
| Turnout | 33,008 | 57.2 | 4.2 | 33,020 | 57.2 | 4.1 | ||
| SNP hold | Swing | 5.9 | ||||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Cara Hilton | 10,279 | 42.5 | 6.9 | |
| SNP | Shirley-Anne Somerville | 7,402 | 30.7 | 6.9 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Susan Leslie | 2,852 | 11.8 | 7.9 | |
| Conservative | James Reekie | 2,009 | 8.3 | 1.2 | |
| UKIP | Peter Adams | 908 | 3.8 | New | |
| Green | Zara Kitson | 593 | 2.5 | New | |
| Independent | John Black | 161 | 0.7 | New | |
| Majority | 2,877 | 11.8 | N/A | ||
| Total valid votes | 24,200 | ||||
| Rejected ballots | 41 | ||||
| Turnout | 24,241 | 42.8 | 10.2 | ||
| Labour gain from SNP | Swing | 6.9 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Constituency | Region | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | ±% | Votes | % | ±% | |||
| SNP | Bill Walker | 11,010 | 37.6 | N/A | 12,039 | 41.0 | N/A | |
| Labour | Alex Rowley | 10,420 | 35.6 | N/A | 9,371 | 31.9 | N/A | |
| Liberal Democrats | Jim Tolson[a] | 5,776 | 19.7 | N/A | 3,304 | 11.3 | N/A | |
| Conservative | James Reekie | 2,093 | 7.1 | N/A | 2,283 | 7.8 | N/A | |
| Green | 928 | 3.2 | N/A | |||||
| All-Scotland Pensioners Party | 420 | 1.4 | N/A | |||||
| UKIP | 276 | 0.9 | N/A | |||||
| Socialist Labour | 221 | 0.8 | N/A | |||||
| BNP | 197 | 0.7 | N/A | |||||
| Scottish Christian | 99 | 0.3 | N/A | |||||
| CPA | 74 | 0.3 | N/A | |||||
| Scottish Socialist | 72 | 0.2 | N/A | |||||
| Independent | Andrew Roger | 56 | 0.2 | N/A | ||||
| Solidarity | 24 | 0.1 | N/A | |||||
| Majority | 590 | 2.0 | N/A | |||||
| Valid Votes | 29,299 | 29,364 | ||||||
| Invalid Votes | 92 | 82 | ||||||
| Turnout | 29,391 | 53.0 | N/A | 29,446 | 53.1 | N/A | ||
| SNP win (new seat) | ||||||||
Notes
| ||||||||
Footnotes
- ^ Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries: Report to Scottish Ministers, p 25.
- ^ a b Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries: Report to Scottish Ministers, p 141.
- ^ a b Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries: Report to Scottish Ministers, p 28.
- ^ a b "First Periodic Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries Final Report" (PDF). Boundaries Scotland. May 2010. p. 160. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
- ^ Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries: Report to Scottish Ministers, p 143.
- ^ Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries: Report to Scottish Ministers, p 140-142.
- ^ Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries: Report to Scottish Ministers, p 110.
- ^ "Constituencies A-Z: Dunfermline". BBC News. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
- ^ a b c "Scottish Parliamentary Results". Fife Council. 14 May 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
- ^ "Dunfermline by-election briefing" (PDF). Scottish Parliament Information Centre. 25 October 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
- ^ "Results and turnout at the 2011 Scottish Parliament election". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
- ^ "2011 Election analysis (Excel 2.37MB)". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
Bibliography
- "Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries: Report to Scottish Ministers" (PDF). Boundaries Scotland. April 2025. Retrieved 26 November 2025.
External links
- "Dunfermline constituency map (2025 boundaries)" (PDF). Boundaries Scotland. Retrieved 15 December 2025.
- "Dunfermline constituency map" (PDF). Boundaries Scotland. Retrieved 13 July 2021.