One of the largest seats in terms of area, the constituency is predominantly rural and is very sparsely populated.

The M74, which is the main road between Scotland and England, runs through the constituency as do the West Coast Mainline and Glasgow South Western railway lines.

Following the boundary review for the 2005 general election, Labour held a clear majority of 12% over the Conservatives, according to calculations of notional results (an estimate of how the seat would have voted if it had existed at the previous election) and the seat was 96th[5] on the Conservatives' target list.

However, former Conservative MSP David Mundell was successful in gaining the seat from Labour, with a swing of 8.0%.

[8] However, following the SNP's losses at the 2017 snap general election, the Conservatives gained 12 seats in Scotland, with Mundell increasing his majority to 9,441 votes.