City of Edinburgh Council elections

City of Edinburgh Council in Scotland holds elections every five years, previously holding them every four years from its creation as a single-tier authority in 1995 to 2007.

Council elections

As a district council

Year	SNP	Labour	Liberal [a]	Conservative	Independent
1974	1	29	3	30	1
1977	5	23	1	34	1
1980 [b]	2	25	2	31	2 [c]
1984	2	34	4	22	0
1988	2	33	4	23	0
1992	2	30	7	23	0

1. SDP–Liberal Alliance from 1981 to 1988, Liberal Democrats from 1988.
2. New ward boundaries. ^[1]
3. Includes 1 Independent Labour.

As a unitary authority

Year	SNP	Labour	Liberal Democrats	Green	Conservative
1995	0	34	10	0	14
1999 [a]	1	31	13	0	13
2003	0	30	15	0	13
2007 [b]	12	15	17	3	11
2012	18	20	3	6	11
2017 [c]	19	12	6	8	18
2022	19	13	12	10	9

1. New ward boundaries. ^[2]
2. Change to single transferable vote system and new ward boundaries.
3. New ward boundaries. ^[3]

Results maps

• 
  1980 results map
• 
  1984 results map
• 
  1988 results map
• 
  1992 results map
• 
  1995 results map
• 
  1999 results map
• 
  2003 results map
• 
  2007 results map
• 
  2012 results map
• 
  2017 results map
• 
  2022 results map

By-elections

2003-2007

North Morningside/Grange By-Election 9 October 2003 ^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Elizabeth O'Malley [5]	883	43.1	−15.6
	Conservative		743	36.3	+17.1
	Scottish Green		185	9.0	+9.0
	Labour		141	6.9	−5.1
	SNP		95	4.6	−2.0
Majority			140	6.8
Turnout			2,047
	Liberal Democrats hold

Colinton By-Election 28 October 2004 ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Jason Rust [7]	1,830	46.0	−16.7
	Liberal Democrats		1,680	42.2	+30.4
	Labour		289	7.3	−8.3
	SNP		145	3.6	−6.3
	Scottish Socialist		38	1.0	+1.0
Majority			150	3.8
Turnout			3,982
	Conservative hold

Murrayfield By-Election 10 November 2005 ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Jeremy Balfour	1,327	50.0	−0.4
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Crockart	859	32.4	+10.5
	Independent	Kristina Woolnough	226	8.5	+8.5
	Labour	Norma Hart	114	4.3	−12.0
	Scottish Green	Jill Boulton	58	2.2	+2.2
	SNP	Sheena Cleland	52	2.0	−5.7
	Liberal	Roy Isserlis	12	0.5	+0.5
	UKIP	Melville Brown	4	0.2	+0.2
Majority			468	17.6
Turnout			2,652
	Conservative hold

2007-2012

Forth By-Election 6 November 2008 ^[9]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
	Labour	Cammy Day	29.53	2,013	2,014	2,023	2,042	2,134	2,228	2,543	2,810	3,735
	SNP	George Gordon	27.01	1,841	1,843	1,849	1,861	1,920	2,005	2,259	2,529
	Conservative	Iain McGill	17.31	1,180	1,184	1,187	1,188	1,199	1,225	1,453
	Liberal Democrats	Sanne C Djikstra-Downie	14.45	985	987	989	995	1,033	1,155
	Scottish Green	Kate Joester	5.06	341	343	360	373	410
	Independent	John Loughton	4.36	297	303	307	323
	Solidarity	Willie Black	1.17	80	80	84
	Scottish Socialist	Robert Richard	1.0	53	54
	Independent	James G MacLean	0.1	26
	Labour hold
Valid: 6,816  Spoilt: 70  Quota: 3,409  Turnout: 6,886

Liberton/Gilmerton By-Election 9 September 2010 ^[10]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Labour	Bill Cook	44.8	2,974				3,121	3,308
	SNP	Richard Lewis	20.8	1,382				1,484	1,698
	Conservative	Stephanie Murray	15.4	1,020				1,055	1,262
	Liberal Democrats	John Christopher Knox	10.9	722				816
	Scottish Green	Peter McColl	3.0	201
	Scottish Socialist	Colin Fox	2.5	169
	Independent	Mev Brown	1.9	128
	Pirate	Philip Hunt	0.6	43
	Labour hold
Valid: 6,639  Spoilt: 65  Quota: 3,320  Turnout: 6,704

City Centre By-Election 18 August 2011 ^[11]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	SNP	Alasdair Rankin	23.1	797	825	893	1,081	1,368
	Conservative	Iain McGill	24.2	837	904	1,043	1,110	1,264
	Labour	Karen Doran	19.7	682	716	745	968
	Scottish Green	Melanie Main	14.3	494	576	635
	Independent	John Carson	11.4	394	402
	Liberal Democrats	Alistair Hodgson	7.3	251
	SNP hold
Valid: 3,455  Spoilt: 11  Quota: 1,728  Turnout: 3,466

2012-2017

Liberton/Gilmerton By-Election 20 June 2013 ^{[12] [13]}

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Labour	Keith John Robson	39.5	2,892	2,896	2,906	2,941	3,070	3,255	3,448
	SNP	Derek Howie	30.7	2,249	2,251	2,256	2,287	2,403	2,523	2,633
	Conservative	Stephanie Murray	11.2	823	824	836	903	934	1,098
	Liberal Democrats	John Christopher Knox	8.3	605	611	616	625	708
	Scottish Green	Alys Mumford	5.6	412	430	440	471
	UKIP	Jonathan Stanley	3.2	235	239	251
	Independent	John Scott	0.9	64	70
	Pirate	Phil Hunt	0.6	47
	Labour gain from SNP
Valid: 7,246  Spoilt: 81  Quota: 3,664  Turnout: 7,327

Leith Walk By-Election 10 September 2015 ^[14]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	SNP	John Ritchie	36.2	2,290
	Labour	Marion Donaldson	25.7	1,623	1,650.1	1,653.1	1,659.6	1,661.7	1,680.4	1,697.6	1,798.2	1,990.2	2,717.3
	Scottish Green	Susan Rae	21.8	1,381	1,464.6	1,469.8	1,483.4	1,495.3	1,502.7	1,576.1	1,653.3	1,729.9
	Conservative	Gordon Murdie	7.9	501	503.8	505.8	506.9	507.0	540.2	541.2	574.6
	Liberal Democrats	Mo Hussain	4.0	255	261.6	263.0	265.3	265.3	267.4	271.6
	UKIP	Alan Melville	1.6	102	105.6	105.6	106.8	106.8
	Scottish Socialist	Natalie Reid	1.5	97	107.7	107.7	108.2	122.0	125.2
	Left Unity	Bruce Whitehead	0.5	32	33.6	33.7	33.9
	Independent	John Scott	0.4	26	29.0	30.0
	Scottish Libertarian	Tom Laird	0.3	17	17.9
	SNP hold
	Labour gain from Scottish Green
Valid: 6,324  Spoilt: 83  Quota: 2,109  Turnout: 6,407

2017-2022

Leith Walk By-Election 11 April 2019 ^[15]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
	SNP	Rob Munn	35.7	2,596	2,598	2,598	2,598	2,612	2,616	2,630	2,721	2,763	3,021	4,487
	Scottish Green	Lorna Slater	25.5	1,855	1,856	1,856	1,856	1,865	1,869	1,904	2,093	2,223	2,765
	Labour	Nick Gardner	15.5	1,123	1,124	1,124	1,126	1,136	1,140	1,157	1,320	1,497
	Conservative	Dan McCroskrie	10.7	777	777	779	781	784	811	825	912
	Liberal Democrats	Jack Caldwell	8.6	623	624	624	626	628	633	652
	Independent	Kevin Illingworth	1.5	110	112	112	122	126	143
	UKIP	Steven Alexander	1.2	85	88	97	97	98
	Socialist Labour	David Jacobsen	0.8	56	56	56	56
	Independent	John Scott	0.2	16	16	17
	For Britain	Paul Stirling	0.2	14	14
	Scottish Libertarian	Tom Laird	0.2	12
	SNP gain from Labour
Valid: 7,267  Spoilt: 67  Quota: 3,634  Turnout: 7,334

Craigentinny/Duddingston By-election (12 November 2020) ^[16]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	SNP	Ethan Young	38.9	2,920	2,924	2,936	3,004	3,716	3,818
	Labour	Margaret Graham	16.1	1,205	1,205	1,216	1,359	1,682	2,085
	Conservative	Eleanor Price	18.9	1,420	1,428	1,448	1,582	1,620
	Scottish Green	Benjamin Parker	15.8	1,185	1,189	1,203	1,340
	Liberal Democrats	Elaine Ford	8.4	631	634	647
	Independent	Andrew McDonald	1.2	93	100
	Scottish Libertarian	Tam Laird	0.6	42
	SNP hold
Valid: 7,496  Spoilt: 86  Quota: 3,749  Turnout: 7,582

2022-2027

Corstorphine/Murrayfield By-Election 9 March 2023 ^{[17] [18]}

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1
	Liberal Democrats	Fiona Bennett	56.0	4,577
	SNP	Donald Rutherford	13.3	1,086
	Conservative	Hugh Findlay	9.6	788
	Labour	Richard Parker	7.0	568
	Scottish Green	Chris Young	5.1	417
	Independent	Elaine Miller	3.7	327
	Independent	Pete Gregson	3.6	295
	Scottish Family	Richard Fettes	1.1	90
	Scottish Libertarian	Gary Smith	0.2	20
	Liberal Democrats gain from SNP
Valid: 8,168  Spoilt: 57  Quota: 4,085  Turnout: 8,225

Colinton/Fairmilehead By-Election 14 November 2024 ^{[19] [20]}

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
	Liberal Democrats	Louise Spence	36.3	2,683	2,684	2,685	2,687	2,697	2,704	2,763	2,793	2,898	3,096	3,751
	Labour	Sheila Gilmore	19.5	1,441	1,441	1,444	1,446	1,453	1,463	1,480	1,495	1,611	1,886	2,055
	Conservative	Neil Cuthbert	19.6	1,454	1,458	1,458	1,465	1,476	1,483	1,517	1,638	1,643	1,676
	SNP	Marianna Clyde	10.8	800	800	800	801	806	816	826	835	963
	Scottish Green	Daniel Milligan	5.3	393	393	396	397	402	407	414	423
	Reform UK	Grant Lidster	3.6	268	269	269	281	283	287	300
	Independent	Marc Wilkinson	2.3	173	173	175	177	179	190
	Independent	David Henry	0.8	57	57	57	63	75
	Independent	Mev Brown	0.7	50	51	60	62
	Scottish Family	Richard Lucas	0.7	51	51	51
	Independent	Bonnie Prince Bob	0.3	22	22
	Scottish Libertarian	Tam Laird	0.1	9
	Liberal Democrats gain from Labour
Electorate: 19,907  Valid: 7,401  Spoilt: 45  Quota: 3,701  Turnout: 7,446

Colinton/Fairmilehead By-Election 23 January 2025 ^{[21] [22]}

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
	Conservative	Neil Cuthbert	32.6	2,027	2,027	2,028	2,030	2,034	2,039	2,050	2,100
	Labour	Connor Savage	18.4	1,146	1,147	1,148	1,149	1,152	1,159	1,166	1,191	1,193	1,209	1,342	1,615	2,192
	Liberal Democrats	Peter Nicholson	16.2	1,009	1,009	1,009	1,009	1,012	1,015	1,023	1,059	1,064	1,103	1,187	1,380
	SNP	Marianna Clyde	13.5	840	840	840	843	843	848	849	870	870	892	1,032
	Scottish Green	Daniel Milligan	6.8	426	426	426	426	432	436	444	460	460	467
	Reform UK	Grant Lidster	5.5	345	345	345	347	348	354	364	384	387
	Independent	Marc Wilkinson	4.1	256	256	258	260	264	278	288
	Scottish Family	Richard Lucas	1.0	65	65	68	69	70	70
	Independent	David Henry	0.6	38	38	43	54	61
	Independent	Bonnie Prince Bob	0.5	30	32	32	32
	Independent	Mev Brown	0.4	23	23	25
	Independent	Nick Horning	0.2	13	15
	Independent	Mark Ney-Party	0.1	5
	Conservative gain from SNP
	Labour gain from Liberal Democrats
Valid: 6,223  Spoilt: 58  Quota: 2,075  Turnout: 6,281

References

1. "Initial Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements". National Records of Scotland. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
2. "Third Statutory Review of Electoral Arrangements - City of Edinburgh Council Area" (PDF). Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
3. "Fifth Statutory Review of Electoral Arrangements Final Recommendations - City of Edinburgh Council Area" (PDF). Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
4. "Local Elections Archive Project — North Morningside/Grange Ward". www.andrewteale.me.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
5. "By-Election - No 46 North Morningside/Grange Ward" (PDF). City of Edinburgh Council. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
6. "Local Elections Archive Project — Colinton Ward". www.andrewteale.me.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
7. "By-Election - No 43 Colinton Ward" (PDF). City of Edinburgh Council. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
8. "THE CITY OF EDINBURGH COUNCIL BY-ELECTION – 10 NOVEMBER 2005 ELECTORAL WARD NO. 15 MURRAYFIELD". City of Edinburgh Council. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
9. "Forth By-Election Result (2008)" (PDF). City of Edinburgh Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 September 2020. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
10. "Local Elections Archive Project — Liberton/Gilmerton Ward". www.andrewteale.me.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
11. "City Centre By-Election Result Stages (2011)" (PDF). City of Edinburgh Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 September 2019. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
12. "WARD 16- Liberton/Gilmerton". Elections Edinburgh. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
13. "Local Elections Archive Project — Liberton/Gilmerton Ward". www.andrewteale.me.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
14. "Electoral Ward 12 ‐ Leith Walk" (PDF). Elections Edinburgh. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
15. Council, The City of Edinburgh. "By-election for electoral ward 12: Leith Walk result - The City of Edinburgh Council". www.edinburgh.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
16. Council, The City of Edinburgh. "Election Results - The City of Edinburgh Council". www.edinburgh.gov.uk. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
17. "Ward 6 Corstorphine/Murrayfield Decleration of Results Report". City of Edinburgh Council. 10 March 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
18. "Ward 6 Corstorphine/Murrayfield Candidate Votes Per Stage Report". City of Edinburgh Council. 10 March 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
19. "Decleration of Results Report Ward 8 Colinton-Fairmilehead". City of Edinburgh Council. 15 November 2024. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
20. "Candidate Votes Per Stage Report Ward 8 Colinton-Fairmilehead". City of Edinburgh Council. 15 November 2024. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
21. "Decleration of Results Report Ward 8 - Colinton-Fairmilehead". City of Edinburgh Council. 24 January 2025. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
22. "Candidate Votes Per Stage Report Ward 8 - Colinton-Fairmilehead". City of Edinburgh Council. 24 January 2025. Retrieved 27 January 2025.