Politics and Government
Ardrossan is in the Ayrshire North & Arran constituency in the House of Commons and Cunninghame North constituency in the Scottish Parliament. The Westminster seat is held by the Labour Party, and the Holyrood seat was gained by the Scottish National Party from Labour in the May 2007 election by a mere 48 votes.
Historically, Ardrossan has been part of the UK parliament constituencies North Ayrshire (1868–1918), Bute and Northern Ayrshire (1918–1983) and Cunninghame North (1983–2005). These constituencies traditionally returned Conservative or Unionist MPs until 1987, when the constituency was won by the Labour Party.
Ardrossan has a Unionist Club on Princes Street, which was established in 1901 and a Labour Social Club is present in the neighbouring town of Saltcoats.
In North Ayrshire council, Ardrossan is represented by two Independent councillors, one Labour councillor and one SNP councillor. The results were:
| North Ayrshire council election, 2007: Ardrossan and Arran | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | 1st Pref | % | Seat | Count | |
| Independent | Margie Currie | 1,439 | 2 | 4 | ||
| SNP | Tony Gurney | 1,414 | 1 | 4 | ||
| Labour | Peter McNamara | 1,007 | 3 | 7 | ||
| Independent | John Hunter | 952 | 4 | 9 | ||
| Conservative | Gordon Allison | 857 | ||||
| Labour | Margaret Munn | 829 | ||||
| SNP | William McLaren | 573 | ||||
| Independent | Kenneth MacDougall | 228 | ||||
| Scottish Socialist | Nigel Hunter | 144 | ||||
The town has two diplomatic missions, a Danish and a Norwegian consulate.
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