A. Eadie                  Lab            19,401          42.7 (%)
A.R. Dewar                SDP            13,245          29.2
D.A.Y. Menzies            Con             9,922          21.9
Mrs. M.J. Hird            SNP             2,826           6.2
                          Lab maj.        6,156          

A. Eadie                  Lab            22,553          48.3 (%)
A.R. Dewar                SDP            10,300          22.0
F.G. Riddell              Con             8,527          18.2
I.M. Chisholm             SNP             4,947          10.6
I.A. Smith                Green             412           0.9
                          Lab maj.       12,253          

E.L. Clarke               Lab            20,588          43.9 (%)
A. Lumsden                SNP            10,254          21.9
W.J. Stoddart             Con             9,443          20.1
P.L. Sewell               L Dem           6,164          13.1
I.D. Morrice              Green             476           1.0
                          Lab maj.       10,334    

1st May 1997 (UK)

Logo	Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Eric Clarke	18,861	53.51%
	Scottish National Party	Laurence Millar	8,991	25.51%%
	Conservative	Anne Harper	3,842	10.90%
	Liberal Democrat	Richard Pinnock	3,235	9.18%
	Referendum	Keith Docking	320	0.91%
	Lab hold	Lab majority	9,870

 

6th May 1999 (Scottish)

	Party		Candidate		Votes
	Scottish Labour Party		Rhona Brankin		14467	(48.62%)
	Scottish National Party		Angus Robertson		8942	(30.05%)
	Scottish Liberal Democrat Party		John Elder		3184	(10.7%)
	Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party		George Turnbull		2544	(8.55%)
	Independent		Douglas Pryde		618	(2.08%)

7th June 2001  (UK)

Turnout: 28,724 (59.07 %)
Logo	Party	Candidate	Votes	%	% change
	Labour	Cllr David Hamilton	15,145	52.73 %	- 0.78 %
	Scottish National Party	Ian Goldie	6,131	21.34 %	- 4.17 %
	Liberal Democrat	Jacqui Bell	3,686	12.83 %	+ 3.65 %
	Conservative	Robin Traquair	2,748	9.57 %	- 1.33 %
	Scottish Socialist Party	Bob Goupillot	837	2.91 %	(+ 2.91 %)
	ProLife Alliance	John Holden	177	0.62 %	(+ 0.62 %)
	Lab hold	Lab majority	9,014	31.39 %	+ 3.39 %

1st May 2003 (Scottish)

Logo	Party	Candidate	Votes	%	% change
	Labour	Rhona Brankin MSP	11139	47.29
	Scottish National Party	Graham Sutherland	5597	23.76
	Conservative	Rosemary Macarthur	2557	10.85
	Liberal Democrat	Jacqui Bell	2700	11.46
	Scottish Socialist Party	Bob Goupillot	1563	6.64
	Lab hold	Lab majority	5542

 

MSPs elected (1999)

Party	Logo	MSPs elected
Labour		56
Scottish National Party		35
Conservative		18
Liberal Democrat		17
Scottish Green Party		1
Scottish Socialist Party		1
MP for Falkirk West		1

MSPs elected (2003)

Party	Logo	MSPs elected
Labour		50
Scottish National Party		27
Conservative		18
Liberal Democrat		17
Scottish Green Party		7
Scottish Socialist Party		6
Local Hospital Concern		1
Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party		1
Dennis Canavan		1
Margo MacDonald		1

Constituency Profile

In 1979 Midlothian was Scotland's biggest seat with an electorate of 102,697, up by 41,000 since the previous review in 1965. In the 1983 review it shed 40,000 voters, mostly to the new Livingston seat with Currie and Balerno being transferred to Edinburgh Pentlands. The new Midlothian seat corresponded exactly to the area covered by Midlothian District Council. In the 1997 review, some 13,000 voters in the Penicuik area were transferred to Tweedale, Ettrick & Lauderdale.

Midlothian now covers the areas around the towns of Dalkeith, Bonnyrig, Lasswade, Loanhead, Newtongrange, Fala and Temple.

The seat has been held by Labour since 1955 and from 1966 to 1992 it was the fief of Mr Alex Eadie, a miner from Fife who was sacked from one post for opposing EEC membership.

In October 1974 the SNP took 24,568 votes in Midlothian, coming within 4,084 votes of Mr Eadie. In 1979, however, the SNP vote crumbled and Alex Eadie obtained a majority of almost 17,000 over the Conservatives.

In the 1983 boundary changes, the Livingston area with its concentration of SNP voters, became a new seat and the SNP fell to fourth place in Midlothian. The new challenger to Mr Eadie was the SDP's Alan Dewar, who took almost 30%, 6,156 votes behind Mr Eadie. Mr Dewar fought Midlothian again in 1987, but there was a 6.4% swing from the SDP to Labour and Alex Eadie doubled his majority to 12,253.

In 1992, Alex Eadie retired after 26 years of representing Midlothian. He was replaced by Eric Clarke, who like Mr Eadie, was a miner for almost 30 years. The Scottish National Party made a dramatic recovery and there was a 7.85 swing from Labour as the SNP more than doubled their vote and shot from fourth to second place.

Although Eric Clarke was only elected in 1992, he was born in 1933 and has already passed the normal age of retirement. He was appointed as a Whip in 1994 and can be considered as "Old Labour" rather than "New". His major rival in the 1997 election was be the Scottish National Party's Laurence Millar. Despite a collapse in the Conservative vote, Mr Clarke's majority only increased to 9,870 over the SNP.

Mr Clarke, like most of his Labour colleagues, is not interested in standing for the Scottish Parliament. Both Labour and the SNP had selection problems in Midlothian. The SNP's Newtongrange branch were unhappy as their favoured candidate, branch secretary Lawrence Millar, who had contested the seat at the general election, failed to make it to the approved list. Finally a short list of two was drawn up - Fiona Hyslop who had previously contested Leith in 1992 and Edinburgh Central in 1997 and Angus Robertson, a journalist based in Austria who regularly helps the party's liaison with overseas journalists. Angus Robertson was selected to represent Midlothian constituency while Fiona Hyslop went on to be elected to third place on the SNP's Lothian list.

Meanwhile, Labour in Midlothian had even more serious problems. The party introduced a system of 'twinning' constituencies to ensure gender balance in the new parliament. The twinned constituencies were to select one male and one female candidate. Labour's Rent-A-Mouth Mrs Helen Liddell (Part time, but fully paid Deputy Secretary of State and full time embarrassment to Scots) took great pleasure in lambasting the SNP who had selected their candidates on merit rather than by sex discrimination. Robert Maxwell's right hand woman, who is not even interested enough in the Scottish parliament to stand herself, was soon made to look an even bigger idiot than usual when the regional lists were published. While every single Labour list was headed by men, much to the disgust of ex Minister and Edinburgh North & Leith MP Malcolm Chisholm, the SNP had woman at the top of their lists in Glasgow (Nicola Sturgeon), Highlands & Island (Winnie Ewing) and Lothians (Margo Macdonald). In fact, most experts predict that there will be very little difference in the gender balance between the SNP and Labour in the new parliament.

In many constituencies the twinning was creating great problems for Labour. In Clydebank and Milngavie protests were made to Labour HQ after a Scottish executive member, Jackie Baillie, was the only female member shortlisted by the general management committee, despite winning just three votes in the entire constituency. In Midlothian there were also problems. The constituency had been twinned with East Lothian. There was a huge disparity in the number of card carrying members due to a large number of Labour social clubs in East Lothian. East Lothian's preferred candidates were John Home Robertson, MP for East Lothian, and Rhona Brankin, a Blairite, and member of the Scottish Executive. Midlothian on the other hand preferred more left wing candidates - Bob McLean of Scottish Labour Action and Edinburgh council leader Lesley Hinds for the female nomination.

Both the preferred East Lothian candidates were selected with John Home Robertson unsurprisingly winning the East Lothian nomination and Rhona Brankin being imposed on Midlothian against their wishes.

Councillor Hinds commented: 'I am disappointed that I didn't win the selection for Midlothian but I know I had the overwhelming support of the members in the constituency and it was always the imbalance in the membership with East Lothian that was going to be the deciding factor. Midlothian deliberately shortlisted me and Bob McLean to give a clear message that we were their preferred candidates, but in the end East Lothian effectively decided for both constituencies.'

The Herald reported that the contest had been marked by claims that a Home Robertson and Brankin slate had been run strongly in East Lothian, backed by a poster campaign and a letter from a party official which was halted at the last minute because it would have broken the rules. One Midlothian party source said: 'Apart from the halted letter and the posters, some of the ways the contest was run were questionable. It has been suggested that Donald Dewar let it be known that he wanted Rhona to win. People were turning up at the bar and renewing their subscriptions in order to vote and then not even listening to the candidates. The whole thing stank. There is bound to be a formal complaint.'

Such is the way in which new Labour runs its affairs. (from Scottish Politics site)

BBC description

Back to Main Political Page         

Go to Midlothian SNP site