Dunfermline East covered a south-western portion of the council area, with Dunfermline West to the west, Fife Central to the northeast and Kirkcaldy to the east.

(The pre-existing Westminster constituency was created during the period, 1975 to 1996, of local government regions and districts, when there was Dunfermline district of the Fife local government region.

In the House of Commons, there had been a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for the area since 1950.

Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, was MP for the Dunfermline East Westminster constituency from 1983 to 2005.

He was subsequently MP for the Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency, where his majority at the 2010 general election was over 15,000.