North Ayrshire and Arran (UK Parliament Constituency)

North Ayrshire And Arran (UK Parliament Constituency)

Coordinates: 55°38′13″N 4°54′54″W / 55.637°N 4.915°W / 55.637; -4.915

North Ayrshire and Arran is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in the south-west of Scotland within the North Ayrshire council area. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post voting system of voting.

Once a longtime Conservative seat, the area has been represented by Labour MPs since 1987. The current MP is Katy Clark, who has held the seat since 2005. Despite a considerable SNP challenge, Clark was re-elected comfortably with a majority of over 9,000 in 2010. During the election campaign, the seat attained national prominence following the Conservative candidate Philip Lardener's declaration that homosexuality was "not normal", and he was subsequently expelled from the party, running as an Independent instead. However he still appeared as the Conservative candidate on the ballot paper, it being too late for the Conservatives to select another candidate.

A diverse seat, it contains the affluent towns of Largs, Fairlie and West Kilbride to the north, as well as the more working class towns of Ardrossan, Dalry, the Garnock Valley, Kilwinning, Saltcoats and Stevenston to the south. The Isle of Arran and Great Cumbrae are also within the constituency.