Rutherglen
Scotland · Burgh constituency · South Lanarkshire
About the Rutherglen constituency
Rutherglen is a burgh constituency in Scotland. The sitting MP is Michael Shanks (Labour), MP since October 2023. At the 2024 general election, Labour won with 50.5% to 29.9% for the SNP, a majority of 8,767 votes on a 58.5% turnout. PollCheck's current projection, at the seven-poll average, has the SNP on 34.1% and Labour on 33.4%, a margin of 0.7 points - a projected change of hands from Labour.
Who lives in Rutherglen? Constituency demographics
From Scotland's 2022 Census and 2016 EU referendum estimates. Constituency-level data on 2024 boundaries.
How did Rutherglen vote in 2024 and how would it vote now?
2024 vote shares from the HoC Library. Current projection is at the 7-poll average.
2024 general election
Current projection
Map of Rutherglen
Switch between GE2024 ward winners (modelled estimates, ~4pp average error) and a demographic view from Scotland's 2022 Census. Hover any area for detail. How the map is built ›
How Rutherglen voted at the Scottish Parliament election (7 May 2026)
Rutherglen crosses multiple Holyrood boundaries (approximate share of the seat's area in each): Rutherglen and Cambuslang (75%), Uddingston and Bellshill (19%), Glasgow Baillieston and Shettleston (3%), Glasgow Cathcart and Pollok (1%), Glasgow Southside (1%). Scotland uses the Additional Member System: voters cast one ballot for a constituency MSP and a second for a regional list. The figures below are the constituency vote.
| Holyrood constituency | Approx. share of Rutherglen's area | Winner | Runner-up | Elected MSP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rutherglen and Cambuslang | 75% | SNP 44.2% | Labour 26.9% | Clare Haughey |
| Uddingston and Bellshill | 19% | SNP 41.5% | Labour 29.1% | Steven Bonnar |
| Glasgow Baillieston and Shettleston | 3% | SNP 44.7% | Reform UK 25.8% | David Linden |
| Glasgow Cathcart and Pollok | 1% | SNP 44.3% | Labour 28.3% | Zen Ghani |
| Glasgow Southside | 1% | Green 36.5% | SNP 28.4% | Holly Bruce |
Holyrood 2026 constituency results from official declarations. Overlap percentages are approximate shares of the Westminster seat's land area, not of its electorate. They come from an area overlay of the post-2024 Westminster boundary on simplified Holyrood second-review boundaries (in force from 7 May 2026), so they do not always sum to 100% and small overlaps may be artefacts of the simplified boundaries.
Rutherglen within South Lanarkshire
Rutherglen sits entirely within South Lanarkshire Council. South Lanarkshire was not due to vote in 2026, so the figures below are the most recent ward results with vote counts available. About this layer ›
Council overlap
| Council | Share of seat |
|---|---|
| South Lanarkshire | 100% |
Most recent council ward results
Latest council result per ward, from the most recent election with vote counts available. How this table is sourced ›
Scottish council wards elect several councillors each by STV, so for these wards the table shows first preferences, not seats: the party with the most first-preference votes and each other party's share. 2022 figures are from the official cast-vote records.
| Ward | GE2024 winner | Latest council first preferences | Shift since GE2024 | Turnout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blantyre | Labour 58.4%vs SNP 30.8% | 2022 Labour 44.8%SNP 42.1%, Conservative 7.7%, Green 3.2%, Lib Dem 2.1% | - | 15.8% |
| Bothwell and Uddingston | Labour 51.1%vs SNP 29.5% | 2022 SNP 32.2%Labour 30.4%, Conservative 27.6%, Lib Dem 5.3%, Green 4.5% | - | 49.7% |
| Cambuslang East | Labour 56.3%vs SNP 32.1% | 2022 SNP 42.3%Labour 39.4%, Conservative 9.6%, Green 4.0%, Lib Dem 2.9%, Others 1.8% | - | 19.5% |
| Cambuslang West | Labour 50.5%vs SNP 33.0% | 2022 SNP 39.0%Labour 30.1%, Conservative 12.9%, Lib Dem 12.7%, Green 5.2% | - | 44.8% |
| Hamilton West and Earnock | Labour 50.1%vs SNP 31.7% | 2022 SNP 41.4%Labour 30.7%, Conservative 12.9%, Lib Dem 11.9%, Green 3.1% | - | 38.6% |
| Rutherglen Central and North | Labour 53.8%vs SNP 31.2% | 2022 SNP 37.7%Labour 35.0%, Conservative 12.0%, Lib Dem 10.2%, Green 5.1% | - | 43.4% |
| Rutherglen South | Labour 47.0%vs SNP 31.5% | 2022 SNP 31.9%Lib Dem 29.4%, Labour 23.2%, Conservative 8.5%, Green 4.6%, Others 1.3%, Independent 1.1% | - | 49.0% |
Projection trajectory
PollCheck's projection for Rutherglen at each of the last 60 GB polls. Hover the chart for the underlying poll details.
Who has won Rutherglen at past elections?
2024 and notional 2019 rows are on current boundaries; 2010-2017 rows are on the boundaries in force at the time. More on boundaries ›
| Year | Result | MP | Lab | Con | LD | SNP | Majority | Turnout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010predecessor | Lab hold | Tom Greatrex Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP | 60.8% | 9.7% | 12.0% | 16.1% | 21,002 | 61.5% |
| 2015predecessor | SNP gain from Lab Coop | Margaret Ferrier Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP | 35.2% | 7.6% | 1.8% | 52.6% | 9,975 | 69.6%+8.1 |
| 2017predecessor | Lab gain from SNP | Gerard Killen Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP | 37.5% | 19.5% | 4.2% | 37.0% | 265 | 63.5%-6.1 |
| 2019notional | Scottish National Party winner | Margaret Ferrier Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP, pre-review boundary | 31.2% | 17.3% | 7.2% | 43.1% | 5,855 | 68.4% |
| 2023by-election | Lab gain from SNP | Michael Shanks Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP | 58.6% | 3.9% | 2.9% | 27.6% | 9,446 | 37.1% |
| 2024 | Lab gain from SNP | Michael Shanks | 50.5% | 5.7% | 4.0% | 29.9% | 8,767 | 58.5%-9.9 |
Rutherglen was created or substantially redrawn by the 2023 boundary review. Pre-2024 rows below are for the predecessor seat Rutherglen and Hamilton West (the seat that covered most of this area), so vote shares and majorities aren’t directly comparable to the post-2024 figures. By-elections are on the boundaries in force at the time and usually have much lower turnout than a general election.
Constituencies most like Rutherglen
Five seats with similar demographic profiles to Rutherglen. Politics shown for context.
- ↓Leave36.8 / 36.6vs 53.2
- ↓Private rent9.0 / 9.3vs 20.2
- ↑Graduate43.1 / 42.0vs 33.7
- ↓Leave36.8 / 36.8vs 53.2
- ↓Private rent9.0 / 10.2vs 20.2
- ↑Graduate43.1 / 40.3vs 33.7
- ↓Leave36.8 / 35.5vs 53.2
- ↓Private rent9.0 / 10.4vs 20.2
- ↑Graduate43.1 / 45.3vs 33.7
- ↓Leave36.8 / 37.9vs 53.2
- ↓Private rent9.0 / 7.6vs 20.2
- ↑Graduate43.1 / 41.6vs 33.7
- ↓Leave36.8 / 35.4vs 53.2
- ↓Private rent9.0 / 7.9vs 20.2
- ↑Graduate43.1 / 46.2vs 33.7
What would change this seat?
Move the sliders to set national vote shares. The per-seat projection updates live. Reset returns to the current 7-poll average.
Related
Sources
Every figure on this page is computed from the sources below. Read the full methodology ›
Show full source list
- 2024 general election results · UK Parliament Election Results portal and House of Commons Library briefing CBP-10009.
- Notional 2019 results on 2024 boundaries · UK Parliament Election Results portal. Recalculated by Parliament; carries assumptions about how 2019 voters would have distributed across the redrawn boundaries.
- Historic general election results (2010-2017) · House of Commons Library historic results files (on the boundaries in force at the time).
- Ward-level GE2024 estimates · Britain Elects / New Statesman - article by Ben Walker, underlying spreadsheet. Modelled from constituency totals; average ~4pp per-ward MoE.
- May 2026 council ward results · Democracy Club via PollCheck's locals 2026 dataset.
- Earlier council ward results (2014-2024) · DCLEAPIL v1.0 (Jason Leman, drawing on Andrew Teale's LEAP dataset and Democracy Club).
- Demographics · ONS Census 2021 (England and Wales), aggregated to constituency level using the ONS LSOA21 -> PCON24 best-fit lookup.
- EU referendum 2016 estimates · Constituency-level Leave vote estimates (Hanretty 2017 method).
- MP details and Cabinet roles · UK Parliament Members API. MP photos are fetched live from the same source.
- Boundary geometry and lookups · ONS Open Geography Portal (PCON24 boundaries, LSOA21 boundaries, LSOA21-WD24-LAD24 best-fit lookup).
- Current projection and trajectory · PollCheck's demographic model at the rolling 7-poll average from aggregated GB polls, built from the British Election Study Internet Panel (Fieldhouse et al.), Census 2021 (ONS) and Scotland's Census 2022 (NRS). The trajectory was recalculated with the current model, introduced in autumn 2026.
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