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The 2019 Shetland by-election was held on 29 August 2019 to elect a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the constituency of Shetland. [1] It was held following the resignation of Liberal Democrat MSP Tavish Scott upon taking a new role at Scottish Rugby. [2] [3] The Liberal Democrats held the seat, with Beatrice Wishart being elected for the party. [4]
The Liberal Democrats' Beatrice Wishart was deputy convener of the Shetland Islands Council. [5] [6] The Scottish National Party fielded Shetland-born Tom Wills, an engineer with an offshore renewables company. [5] Two Shetland Islands Council members, Ian Scott and Ryan Thomson, ran as independent candidates. [7] A former Shetland Islands Council member, Michael Stout, also ran as an independent candidate. [8]
The campaign was hard-fought; the SNP spent £100,000 on the by-election - more money than the party spent during the entire EU referendum - and there was a swing of over 14% to their candidate. [9]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrats | Beatrice Wishart | 5,659 | 47.86 | −19.52 | |
| SNP | Tom Wills | 3,822 | 32.32 | +9.27 | |
| Independent | Ryan Thomson | 1,286 | 10.88 | New | |
| Conservative | Brydon Goodlad | 425 | 3.59 | −0.07 | |
| Scottish Green | Debra Nicolson | 189 | 1.60 | New | |
| Labour | Johan Adamson | 152 | 1.29 | −4.61 | |
| Independent | Michael Stout | 134 | 1.13 | New | |
| Independent | Ian Scott | 66 | 0.56 | New | |
| UKIP | Stuart Martin | 60 | 0.51 | New | |
| Independent | Peter Tait | 31 | 0.26 | New | |
| Majority | 1,837 | 15.54 | −28.76 | ||
| Turnout | 11,824 | 66.39 | +4.31 | ||
| Liberal Democrats hold | Swing | −14.40 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrats | Tavish Scott | 7,440 | 67.4 | +19.9 | |
| SNP | Danus Skene | 2,545 | 23.1 | +11.0 | |
| Labour | Robina Barton | 651 | 5.9 | −0.7 | |
| Conservative | Cameron Smith | 405 | 3.7 | +0.2 | |
| Majority | 4,895 | 44.3 | +27.1 | ||
| Turnout | 11,041 | ||||
| Liberal Democrats hold | Swing | ||||
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