Edinburgh North and Leith (UK Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Edinburgh North and Leith (Scottish Parliament constituency).

Edinburgh North and Leith
Burgh constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Edinburgh North and Leith in Scotland
Subdivisions of Scotland	City of Edinburgh
Major settlements	Edinburgh (part), Leith
Current constituency
Created	1997
Member of Parliament	Deidre Brock (SNP)
Created from	Edinburgh Leith

Edinburgh North and Leith is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (at Westminster), first used in the 1997 general election. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

In 1999, a Scottish Parliament constituency was created with the same name and boundaries. See Edinburgh North and Leith (Scottish Parliament constituency) . The boundaries of the Westminster constituency were altered, however, in 2005, and the Scottish Parliament constituency retained the older boundaries until 2011. Since then, the seat has mainly been split between the Edinburgh Northern and Leith and Edinburgh Central constituencies at Holyrood, with a small area also located in Edinburgh Western.

At the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, the constituency returned an above average No vote; 60% voted for Scotland to stay in the United Kingdom, while 40% voted Yes to independence. ^[1] At the 2016 referendum on UK membership of the European Union, the constituency voted to Remain by 78.2%. This constituency was the seventh-highest supporter for a Remain vote. ^[2]

Constituency profile

The constituency is urbanised, affluent and left-leaning, ^[3] and covers several northern communities of the city, as well as most of the former burgh of Leith, which controversially amalgamated with the City of Edinburgh in 1920. It has the highest proportion of residents living in tenements and flats of any parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, and a relatively high proportion of university graduates. It includes a mix of leafy, expensive residential areas in the South and West of the constituency and densely populated areas nearer to Leith with more young professionals and students, as well as older residents whose families have lived there during several previous generations.

It also includes Calton Hill, the shops and offices on the northern side of Princes Street, Bute House, the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland, St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, the Edinburgh Playhouse, the Edinburgh Waterfront, the stretch of the Water of Leith from Dean Village to Leith Harbour, the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Western General Hospital and the notable private schools.

Boundaries

Map of current boundaries

When created in 1997, Edinburgh North and Leith was largely a replacement for the Edinburgh Leith constituency, and was one of six constituencies covering the City of Edinburgh council area. One of those six, Edinburgh East and Musselburgh straddled the boundary with the East Lothian council area to take in Musselburgh. In terms of wards used in elections to the City of Edinburgh Council between 1995 and 2007, the constituency included the wards of Broughton, Calton, Granton, Harbour, Lorne, New Town, Newhaven, Pilton, Stockbridge and Trinity.

Constituency boundaries in Scotland were revised for the 2005 election. The number of constituencies within the city was reduced from six to five, each now entirely within the city area, and Musselburgh was reunited with the remainder of East Lothian. ^[4] A new Edinburgh North and Leith constituency was created, including the whole of the former one, but also taking in the Dean ward from Edinburgh Central and Craigleith ward from Edinburgh West.

As a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, these wards were replaced with new, larger wards for the Council elections on 3 May 2007. The constituency now includes parts of the new wards of Leith, Leith Walk, Forth, Inverleith and City Centre, but none of these exclusively.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member [5]	Party
	1997	Malcolm Chisholm	Labour
	2001	Mark Lazarowicz	Labour Co-op
	2015	Deidre Brock	SNP

Election results

Elections in the 2020s

Next general election: Edinburgh North and Leith

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Deidre Brock [6]
	Labour	Tracy Gilbert [7]
	Liberal Democrats	Adrian May [8]
	Reform UK	Alan Melville [9]
	Scottish Green	Kayleigh O'Neill [10]
			Swing

Elections in the 2010s

General election 2019: Edinburgh North and Leith ^{[11] [12] [13]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Deidre Brock	25,925	43.7	9.7
	Labour Co-op	Gordon Munro	13,117	22.1	9.0
	Conservative	Iain McGill	11,000	18.5	8.7
	Liberal Democrats	Bruce Wilson	6,635	11.2	6.6
	Scottish Green	Steve Burgess	1,971	3.3	0.3
	Brexit Party	Robert Speirs	558	0.9	New
	Renew	Heather Astbury	138	0.2	New
Majority			12,808	21.6	18.7
Turnout			59,334	73.0	1.8
	SNP hold		Swing	9.4

General election 2017: Edinburgh North and Leith ^{[14] [15]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Deidre Brock	19,243	34.0	6.9
	Labour Co-op	Gordon Munro	17,618	31.1	0.2
	Conservative	Iain McGill	15,385	27.2	11.0
	Liberal Democrats	Martin Veart	2,579	4.6	0.1
	Scottish Green	Lorna Slater	1,727	3.0	2.4
Majority			1,625	2.9	6.7
Turnout			56,552	71.2	0.5
	SNP hold		Swing	3.3

See also: Opinion polling in United Kingdom constituencies, 2010–15 § Edinburgh North and Leith

General election 2015: Edinburgh North and Leith ^{[16] [17]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Deidre Brock	23,742	40.9	31.3
	Labour Co-op	Mark Lazarowicz [18]	18,145	31.3	6.2
	Conservative	Iain McGill [19]	9,378	16.2	1.3
	Scottish Green	Sarah Beattie-Smith [20]	3,140	5.4	3.2
	Liberal Democrats	Martin Veart	2,634	4.5	29.3
	UKIP	Alan Melville [21]	847	1.5	New
	Left Unity (TUSC)	Bruce Whitehead [22]	122	0.2	0.3
Majority			5,597	9.6	N/A
Turnout			58,008	71.7	3.3
	SNP gain from Labour Co-op		Swing	18.7

General election 2010: Edinburgh North and Leith ^[23]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	Mark Lazarowicz	17,740	37.5	3.3
	Liberal Democrats	Kevin Lang	16,016	33.8	4.6
	Conservative	Iain McGill	7,079	14.9	3.8
	SNP	Calum Cashley	4,568	9.6	0.6
	Scottish Green	Kate Joester	1,062	2.2	3.6
	Liberal	John Hein	389	0.8	New
	TUSC	Willie Black	233	0.5	New
	Socialist Labour	David Jacobsen	141	0.3	New
	Independent	Cameron James MacIntyre	128	0.3	New
Majority			1,724	3.7	1.3
Turnout			47,356	68.4	5.7
	Labour Co-op hold		Swing	0.7

Elections in the 2000s

General election 2005: Edinburgh North and Leith

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	Mark Lazarowicz	14,597	34.2	-7.7
	Liberal Democrats	Mike Crockart	12,444	29.2	+8.9
	Conservative	Iain Whyte	7,969	18.7	±0.0
	SNP	Davie Hutchison	4,344	10.2	-4.2
	Scottish Green	Mark Sydenham	2,482	5.8	New
	Scottish Socialist	Bill Scott	804	1.9	-1.7
Majority			2,153	5.0	-21.5
Turnout			42,640	62.7	+8.8
	Labour Co-op hold		Swing	-8.3

General election 2001: Edinburgh North and Leith

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	Mark Lazarowicz	15,271	45.9	-1.0
	Liberal Democrats	Sebastian Tombs	6,454	19.4	+6.4
	SNP	Kaukab Stewart	5,290	15.9	-4.2
	Conservative	Iain Mitchell	4,626	13.9	-4.0
	Scottish Socialist	Catriona Grant	1,334	4.0	+3.2
	Socialist Labour	Don Jacobsen	259	0.8	New
Majority			8,817	26.5	-0.3
Turnout			33,234	53.0	-13.5
	Labour Co-op hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General election 1997: Edinburgh North and Leith

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Malcolm Chisholm	19,209	46.9	N/A
	SNP	Anne Dana	8,231	20.1	N/A
	Conservative	Ewen Stewart	7,312	17.9	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Hillary Campbell	5,335	13.0	N/A
	Referendum	Sandy Graham	441	1.1	N/A
	Scottish Socialist	Gavin Browne	320	0.8	N/A
	Natural Law	Paul Douglas-Reid	97	0.2	N/A
Majority			10,978	26.8	N/A
Turnout			40,945	66.5	N/A
	Labour hold		Swing

See also

• Politics of Edinburgh

References

1. "Scottish Independence Referendum 2014 results". Archived from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
2. "Revised estimates of leave vote in Westminster constituencies". Archived from the original on 15 March 2017. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
3. "Edinburgh North and Leith: Seat Details". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
4. "Fifth Periodical Review". Boundary Commission for Scotland. Archived from the original on 21 September 2007.
5. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "E" (part 1)
6. "Less than a third of general election candidates selected so far are women". 5 November 2023.
7. https://tracygilbert.co.uk/ ^{[ bare URL ]}
8. "Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidates". 5 February 2024.
9. https://www.reformparty.uk/edinburgh-north-and-leith-constituency
10. https://twitter.com/KayleighFONeill/status/1734723322196152532?s=20 ^{[ bare URL ]}
11. "UK Parliamentary General Election - 12 December 2019". The City of Edinburgh Council. Archived from the original on 15 November 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
12. "Edinburgh North & Leith parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". BBC News. Archived from the original on 8 May 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
13. "Commons Briefing Paper 8749. General Election 2019: results and analysis" (PDF). London: House of Commons Library. 28 January 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 November 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
14. "Who you can vote for: UK Parliamentary General Election 8 June 2017 candidates". City of Edinburgh Council . Archived from the original on 14 May 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
15. "Commons Briefing Paper 7979. General Election 2017: results and analysis" (PDF) (Second ed.). House of Commons Library. 29 January 2019 [7 April 2018]. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2019.
16. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
17. Council, The City of Edinburgh. "UK Parliamentary election results 2015 | The City of Edinburgh Council". www.edinburgh.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
18. "UK ELECTION RESULTS: EDINBURGH NORTH & LEITH 2015". Archived from the original on 21 September 2019. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
19. "Iain McGill for Edinburgh North & Leith". Edinburgh Conservative and Unionist Federation. 2014. Archived from the original on 11 January 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
20. "Edinburgh North & Leith". UK Polling Report. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
21. "UK Polling Report". Archived from the original on 25 April 2015. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
22. "Home". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
23. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.

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