SCOTLAND will lose two of its 59 seats at the general election after a boundary shake-up affecting most of the constituencies in the country.
The Boundary Commission for Scotland laid its final recommendations for the 57 seats before parliament yesterday after a process lasting more than two years.
Glasgow loses one of its seven seats, Glasgow Central, while Moray is broken up.
Glasgow Central is currently held by the SNP’s Alison Thewliss who may have to take on a party colleague to secure a candidacy for 2024.
Moray is held by Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, but he has said for some time that he would not try to fight elsewhere, as he is also a Highlands & Islands list MSP at Holyrood.
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The Scottish Liberal Democrats believe the changes give them a good chance of retaking the East Dunbartonshire seat lost to the SNP in 2019, now named Mid Dunbartonshire.
The LibDems are also hopeful of picking up the new Inverness, Skye & Ross-shire seat, where former SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford is standing down.
Scotland’s two island constituencies - Na h-Eileanan an Iar and Orkney & Shetland - remain unchanged, as do eight of the 55 mainland ones: Ayr, Carrick & Cumnock; Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk; Central Ayrshire; East Renfrewshire; Kilmarnock & Loudon; Midlothian; North Ayrshire & Arran; and West Aberdeenshire & Kincardine.
However the other 47 have been redrawn to varying degrees to be within 5% of the electoral quota of 73,393, meaning between 69,724 and 77.062 electors each.
The largest constituency in area will be Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross at 11,798 square kilometres (previously Ross, Skye & Lochaber at 12,768 km2.
The smallest is Glasgow West at 19 km2 (previously Glasgow North at 17km2).
Of the 55 mainland constituencies, 37 are within a single council area, 17 within two, and one straddles three.
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Lord Matthews, the deputy chair of the Commission said: “We listen carefully to comments made on our proposals during the 2023 review and made a number of changes to boundaries and to constituency names.
“We believe our final recommendations meet the requirements of the legislation governing the review and within those constraints fairly well reflect the views expressed to us during our consultations.”
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