# Coatbridge and Airdrie (UK Parliament constituency)

Coatbridge and Airdrie was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) from 1950 until 1983.
It was then replaced by the Monklands West constituency.

## Boundaries

The constituency location was in northern Lanarkshire, to the north of Bothwell and to the east of Glasgow. From 1885 until 1983 Coatbridge and Airdrie were linked for parliamentary purposes. The seat was named Coatbridge and Airdrie after 1950.
In the 1885 to 1918 period the area formed the county constituency of Coatbridge. In the 1918 redistribution the burgh constituency of Coatbridge was created. The seat was defined in 1918 as comprising the burghs of Airdrie and Coatbridge.
The change in the constituency name in 1950 did not affect the boundaries. Apart from a small boundary change to Airdrie, which took effect for parliamentary purposes in 1955, its boundaries did not alter until the areas parliamentary representation was remodelled in 1983.
From the 1983 general election the area was divided between two new seats. It provided the majority of the electorate for both Monklands East and Monklands West. 34,802 electors in the old seat were included in the new East constituency (57.1% of the old seat and 72.2% of the new one). 26,148 voters found themselves in Monklands West (42.9% of the old seat and 53.4% of the new one).

## Members of Parliament

| Election | Election | Member | Party |
| | 1950 | Jean Mann | Labour |
| | 1959 | James Dempsey | Labour |
| | 1982 by-election | Tom Clarke | Labour |
| 1983 | 1983 | constituency abolished | constituency abolished |

## Election results
### Elections in the 1950s

General election 1950: Coatbridge and Airdrie :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Labour | Jean Mann | 23,239 | 56.53 | |
| | Unionist | James McMillan | 16,552 | 40.27 | |
| | Anti-Partition | TP O'Callaghan | 1,315 | 3.20 | |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 6,687 | 16.26 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 47,841 | 85.92 | |
| | Labour win (new seat) | Labour win (new seat) | Labour win (new seat) | Labour win (new seat) | Labour win (new seat) |
General election 1951: Coatbridge and Airdrie :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Labour | Jean Mann | 24,159 | 57.37 | +0.84 |
| | Unionist | James McMillan | 17,952 | 42.63 | +2.36 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 6,207 | 14.74 | −1.53 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 42,111 | | |
| | Labour hold | Labour hold | Swing | | |
General election 1955: Coatbridge and Airdrie :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Labour | Jean Mann | 22,269 | 55.85 | −1.52 |
| | Unionist | David Anderson | 17,605 | 44.15 | +1.52 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 4,664 | 11.70 | −3.04 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 39,874 | | |
| | Labour hold | Labour hold | Swing | | |
General election 1959: Coatbridge and Airdrie :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Labour | James Dempsey | 22,747 | 50.89 | −4.96 |
| | Unionist | Catherine S Morton | 21,953 | 49.11 | +4.96 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 794 | 1.78 | −9.92 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 44,700 | | |
| | Labour hold | Labour hold | Swing | | |

### Elections in the 1960s

General election 1964: Coatbridge and Airdrie :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Labour | James Dempsey | 27,178 | 62.11 | +11.22 |
| | Unionist | Andrew Thomson | 16,580 | 37.89 | −11.22 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 10,598 | 24.22 | +22.44 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 43,758 | | |
| | Labour hold | Labour hold | Swing | | |
General election 1966: Coatbridge and Airdrie :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Labour | James Dempsey | 26,491 | 64.19 | +2.08 |
| | Conservative | William C Raeburn | 14,777 | 35.81 | −2.08 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 11,714 | 28.38 | +4.16 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 41,268 | | |
| | Labour hold | Labour hold | Swing | | |

### Elections in the 1970s

General election 1970: Coatbridge and Airdrie :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Labour | James Dempsey | 26,117 | 58.88 | −5.31 |
| | Conservative | William Rennie | 15,574 | 35.11 | −0.70 |
| | SNP | Wolseley Brown | 2,667 | 6.01 | New |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 10,543 | 23.77 | −4.62 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 44,358 | | |
| | Labour hold | Labour hold | Swing | | |
General election February 1974: Coatbridge and Airdrie :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Labour | James Dempsey | 24,945 | 54.15 | −4.73 |
| | Conservative | C Anderson | 13,162 | 28.57 | −6.54 |
| | SNP | D R M Hill | 7,961 | 17.28 | +11.27 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 11,783 | 25.58 | +1.81 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 46,068 | | |
| | Labour hold | Labour hold | Swing | | |
General election October 1974: Coatbridge and Airdrie :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Labour | James Dempsey | 23,034 | 51.61 | −2.54 |
| | SNP | D R M Hill | 12,466 | 27.93 | +10.65 |
| | Conservative | John Love | 7,683 | 17.22 | −11.35 |
| | Liberal | A Smith | 1,446 | 3.24 | New |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 10,568 | 23.68 | −1.90 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 44,629 | | |
| | Labour hold | Labour hold | Swing | | |
General election 1979: Coatbridge and Airdrie :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Labour | James Dempsey | 27,598 | 60.9 | +9.3 |
| | Conservative | J. Love | 12,442 | 27.5 | +10.3 |
| | SNP | M. Johnston | 5,260 | 11.6 | −16.3 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 15,156 | 33.4 | +9.7 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 45,300 | 75.3 | |
| Registered electors | Registered electors | Registered electors | 60,133 | | |
| | Labour hold | Labour hold | Swing | | |

### Elections in the 1980s

* Death of James Dempsey
By-Election 24 June 1982: Coatbridge and Airdrie :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Labour | Tom Clarke | 19,208 | 55.1 | −5.8 |
| | Conservative | Hugo de Burgh | 9,118 | 26.2 | −1.3 |
| | SNP | Ron Wyllie | 3,652 | 10.5 | −1.1 |
| | Liberal | Sandy Henderson | 2,873 | 8.2 | New |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 10,090 | 28.9 | −4.5 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 34,951 | 56.3 | −19.0 |
| Registered electors | Registered electors | Registered electors | 61,876 | | |
| | Labour hold | Labour hold | Swing | | |