Rutherglen and Hamilton West was a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which was created for the 2005 general election.

Ferrier had the SNP whip withdrawn on 1 October 2020 after a breach of COVID-19 pandemic regulations, and sat as an independent from that date onward.

[2] On 1 August, South Lanarkshire Council confirmed the recall petition had been successful, as more than 10% of the Rutherglen and Hamilton West electorate had signed.

Coincidentally in the neighbouring Lanark and Hamilton East, sitting MP Angela Crawley held her seat by just 266 votes.

The seat was regarded as an important battleground constituency between Labour and the SNP, having changed hands three times in the past 10 years.