Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey

Newly created at the 2005 General Election, Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey covers 4,953 square kilometres. It stretches from Fort Augustus and Glenmoriston at the Western end of Loch Ness to the edge of Nairnshire in the East, from Kirkhill and Kiltarlity in the North to Dalwhinnie and the Drumochter Pass in the South. The constituency is centred on the City of Inverness, which accommodates the majority of its 70,000 electors.

The constituency includes sizeable towns such as Nairn, Grantown-on-Spey, Aviemore, Kingussie and Newtonmore as well as numerous villages. It incorporates some of Scotland’s most famous natural features - Loch Ness, the Great Glen, the River Spey, and part of the Cairngorm mountains.

The economy of the whole area has grown dramatically in recent years. Tourism is a major industry across the constituency, as is agriculture. Settlement at Inverness itself is traced back as far as 6AD, and the functions which dominate its history endure today in modern forms – as a regional market town and port. Its importance was reinforced as early as the thirteenth century when the first bridge across the River Ness was built, and again in 1982 with the completion of the Kessock Bridge securing its status as the hub of the Highlands’ transport infrastructure.

More recently, a strong medical science sector has grown in the Highland capital as a key element in an increasingly vibrant and diverse economy. Inverness was awarded official city status by the Queen in December 2000.

Danny Alexander won the seat for the Scottish Liberal Democrats in 2005, achieving a notional 6% swing from the Labour Party and a majority of 4,148.  Previously the area had been partly represented by David Stewart (Labour) and partly by Charles Kennedy (Lib Dem).  Earlier, former Scottish Liberal Party leader Russell Johnson was MP for the area from 1964 until his retirement in 1997.