Bruce Millan had first been elected as MP for Govan in the
1983 general election, having previously represented
Glasgow Craigton, a constituency which was abolished in that year and partly merged into the redrawn Govan. At the
previous general election Millan, a former
Scottish Secretary, had easily held the seat for the Labour Party, increasing his vote share from 55% in 1983 to 64.9%. In contrast, his main rivals, the SDP and the Conservatives, had both seen their shares of the vote drop by over 7%. Meanwhile, the SNP had managed to increase their share of the vote by over 4%. While Millan had been the clear winner, less than 1,000 votes separated the SDP in second and the SNP in fourth place, a significant change from 1983 when the SNP had been over 5,000 votes behind the SDP. ==Result==