One of the newest seats on the block, Paisley and Renfrewshire South was formed in 2005 from the predecessor seat of Paisley South.
It has been held by Douglas Alexander since 1997, taking the seat from a by-election following the death of Gordon McMaster just months after Tony Blair's landslide victory. The area has been solidly Labour since the 1960s
In 2001 Alexander secured 58.4 per cent of the vote, outpolling the SNP by almost 12,000 votes. In 2005 he took nearly 53 per cent and more than 13,000 more votes than the nearest challenger, again the SNP.
The constituency takes in the southern half of the town of Paisley, as well as the smaller town of Johnstone. The constituency also covers large tracts of rural Renfrewshire, including a number of villages around the many lochs in the area.
2010 result
Douglas Alexander (Lab) 23,842; 59.6%
Andrew Doig (SNP) 7,228; 18.1%
Gordon McCaskill (Con) 3,979; 9.9%
Ashay Ghai (LibDem) 3,812; 9.5%
Paul Mack (Ind) 513; 1.3%
Jimmy Kerr (SSP) 375; 0.9%
William Hendry (Ind) 249; 0.6%
Turnout 39,998 65.36%
Majority 16,614 41.54%
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