East Dunbartonshire Council 2022

In contrast to its western neighbour and much of the Central Belt, East Dunbartonshire is defined by its relative affluence, containing a number of Glasgow’s leafiest suburbs. It’s also something of a chimera, as the historic county of Dunbartonshire had a big gap between the Bearsden and Milngavie area and an exclave around Kirkintilloch and Cumbernauld. In the 1970’s reorganisation, the former became its own district, whilst Kirkintilloch became the anchor for a Strathkelvin district which also included Bishopbriggs and a number of other Lanarkshire villages to the south, plus some Stirlingshire villages to the North. Modern East Dunbartonshire mostly merged those two districts, sans the Chryston area.

The (not entirely equivalent) East Dunbartonshire constituency is renowned for being a rare example of a seat all four Westminster parties have won at some point. However, it’s important to note the version won in 1974’s elections by the Conservatives then SNP was the one with a huge Cumbernauld chunk, so definitely isn’t comparable to the version won by the Lib Dems in 2005, regained in 2017, and then lost along with their UK-level leader in 2019. At Holyrood, the two constituencies covering the modern area were mostly Labour until the SNP won them in 2011, though Strathkelvin and Bearsden elected an Independent, Dr Jean Turner, as their contribution to 2003’s rainbow parliament.

In the elections to the old districts, Bearsden and Milngavie was consistently Conservative, whereas Strathkelvin was majority Labour after an unsettled start which included an SNP plurality in 1977. With the formation of East Dunbartonshire, the 1995 election saw a Labour majority, before the Lib Dems took a bare second place in 1999 and became the largest party in 2003, almost signposting the Westminster victory two years later.