Edinburgh West | |
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Burgh constituency for the House of Commons |
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Boundary of Edinburgh West in .
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Subdivisions of Scotland | City of Edinburgh |
Current constituency | |
Created | 1885 |
Member of parliament | Michelle Thomson (Independent; elected as SNP) |
Created from | Edinburgh |
Overlaps | |
European Parliament constituency | Scotland |
Edinburgh West is a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (at Westminster), first used in the 1885 general election. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Prior to the 2005 general election the constituency had the same boundaries as the Scottish Parliament constituency with the same name, which had been created in 1999. See Edinburgh West (Scottish Parliament constituency).
This commuter belt constituency, distinctively in the city, was a safe Unionist/Conservative seat for over 65 years, from the 1931 general election until the 1997 general election, after which the seat was held by the Liberal Democrats until the 2015 general election. The current MP is Michelle Thomson, who was elected as an SNP member in May 2015. In September 2015, she resigned the party whip so she currently sits as an Independent.
The constituency was created when the Edinburgh constituency was abolished, in 1885, in favour of four new constituencies: Edinburgh East, Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh South and Edinburgh West. The Central constituency was abolished in 2005. The East constituency was abolished in 1997, but a new Edinburgh East was created in 2005. The South and West constituencies have been in continuous use (with alterations to boundaries) since 1885.