Argyll and Bute (Gaelic: Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd) is a county constituency of the Scottish Parliament covering most of the council area of Argyll and Bute. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. Under the additional-member electoral system used for elections to the Scottish Parliament, it is also one of eight constituencies in the Highlands and Islands electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the eight constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
The seat has been held by Jenni Minto of the Scottish National Party since the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.
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Electoral region
The Argyll and Bute constituency is part of the Highlands and Islands electoral region. The other seven constituencies in this region are Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Inverness and Nairn, Moray, Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands and Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch. The region covers most of Argyll and Bute council area, all of the Highland council area, most of the Moray council area, all of the Orkney Islands council area, all of the Shetland Islands council area and all of Na h-Eileanan Siar.
Constituency boundaries and council area
The Argyll and Bute constituency covers most of the Argyll and Bute council area. A portion of the south east of the council area (which includes the town of Helensburgh) is covered by the Dumbarton constituency in the West Scotland electoral region.
The constituency was created at the same time as the Scottish Parliament, for the 1999 Scottish Parliament election, using the name and boundaries of the existing Argyll and Bute constituency of the UK Parliament. For the 2005 United Kingdom general election, the House of Commons constituency was enlarged to cover the whole of the Argyll and Bute council area, whilst the Scottish Parliament constituency retained its existing boundaries. From the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, boundary changes slightly altered the Argyll and Bute Scottish Parliament constituency. All but three electoral wards of Argyll and Bute Council were used to define the seat at this review, namely:
Cowal, Dunoon, Isle of Bute, Kintyre and the Islands, Mid Argyll, Oban North and Lorn, Oban South and the Isles, South Kintyre.
As of 2019, Argyll and Bute's population (60,394) was the lowest among the 70 mainland Scottish Parliament constituencies, being barely two-thirds of the total of those at the top of the list, headed by Linlithgow which had over 95,000 within its boundaries. At the second periodic review of Scottish Parliament boundaries in 2025, Boundaries Scotland recommended that, although the constituency had well below the average electorate, due to the fact that the area contains many inhabited islands and remote areas with less developed transport links, special geographical considerations justified maintaining the seat on its existing boundaries.