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All 59 Scottish seats to the House of Commons | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 66.4%, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Colours on map indicate winning party for each constituency |
The 2017 United Kingdom general election in Scotland was held on Thursday, 8 June 2017 and all 59 seats were contested under the first-past-the-post electoral system.
A first-past-the-post electoral system is one in which voters indicate on a ballot the candidate of their choice, and the candidate who receives the most votes wins. This is sometimes described as winner takes all. First-past-the-post voting is a plurality voting method. FPTP is a common, but not universal, feature of electoral systems with single-member electoral divisions, and is practiced in close to one third of countries. Notable examples include Canada, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as most of their current or former colonies and protectorates.
The general election in Scotland was fought in the aftermath of the 2016 Scottish Parliament election in which the SNP won a third term in government but lost their overall majority in the Scottish Parliament. At that election, the Scottish Conservative Party increased their number of MSPs, overtaking Labour as the largest opposition party. The 2016 EU referendum was held a month later on Thursday, 23 June and the final result was for the United Kingdom to Leave the EU; despite Scotland voting 62.0% Remain. Negotiations are due to begin shortly since invocation of Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union in March 2017, which was expected to dominate the snap general election campaign. [1]
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, by the North Sea to the northeast and by the Irish Sea to the south. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.
In line with the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, an election had not been due until 7 May 2020, but a call for a snap election by Prime Minister Theresa May received the necessary two-thirds majority in a 522-13 vote in the House of Commons on 19 April 2017. [2] The Conservative Party, which has governed since 2010, was defending a majority of 17 [3] against the Labour Party, the official opposition. The third-largest party was the Scottish National Party (SNP), which won 56 of the 59 Scottish seats at the 2015 general election.
The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received Royal Assent on 15 September 2011, introducing fixed-term elections to the Westminster parliament for the first time. Under the provisions of the Act, parliamentary general elections must be held every five years, beginning in 2015.
A snap election is an election called earlier than expected.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister directs both the executive and the legislature, and together with their Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Monarch, to Parliament, to their political party and ultimately to the electorate. The office of Prime Minister is one of the Great Offices of State. The current holder of the office, Theresa May, leader of the Conservative Party, was appointed by the Queen on 13 July 2016.
The election resulted in the SNP remaining as the largest single party in Scotland despite losing 21 seats to pro-union candidates. The Conservatives doubled their share of vote and won 13 seats while Labour won 7 seats and the Liberal Democrats won 4 seats respectively. The Conservatives recorded their best result in Scotland since 1983 or (in terms of seats won) 1979 (in terms of share of the popular vote). Until this election, the Conservatives had not been the second-largest party in Scotland since 1992 and had not been the largest unionist party in Scotland since 1955.
Defeated SNP MPs included: former SNP leader and First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond, [4] SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson, [5] SNP Chief Whip Mike Weir; [6] as well as John Nicolson [7] and Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh. [8] Commentators suggested that the election might reduce the SNP's case for a second referendum on Scottish independence. [9] [10] [11] Following the election, the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon acknowledged that her party's plans for a second referendum were 'undoubtedly' a factor in the election results. The SNP also abandoned its fundraiser for a possible referendum after raising half of its £1,000,000 target, just over a week before its preset deadline. [12]
The First Minister of Scotland is the leader of the Scottish Government. The First Minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is primarily responsible for the formulation, development and presentation of Scottish Government policy. Additional functions of the First Minister include promoting and representing Scotland in an official capacity, at home and abroad, and responsibility for constitutional affairs, as they relate to devolution and the Scottish Government.
Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond is a Scottish politician who served as the First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. He was the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) for over twenty years, having served for two terms, firstly from 1990 to 2000 and subsequently from 2004 to 2014. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Banff and Buchan between 1987 and 2010, when he stood down to focus on his other roles, and then for Gordon from 2015 to 2017, when he lost his seat to Scottish Conservative candidate Colin Clark. During the 2015–2017 parliament, he was the SNP International Affairs and Europe spokesperson in the House of Commons.
Angus Struan Carolus Robertson is a former Scottish politician who was the Depute Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and was the party's spokesperson on the Constitution in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. He was first elected to the House of Commons in 2001. In 2017, he sought re-election as the MP for Moray and lost to Scottish Conservative candidate Douglas Ross.
Following a referendum held on Scottish independence in 2014 which saw 44.7% of voters in Scotland vote for Scotland to become an independent state and 55.3% vote for Scotland to remain a part of the United Kingdom, the SNP won 56 of the 59 UK Parliamentary seats in Scotland at the 2015 UK general election, campaigning on a manifesto focusing on bringing greater devolved powers to Scotland following a promise made by the three main unionist parties in Scotland to bring more devolved powers to the country should it reject independence. [13] The SNP manifesto at the 2015 general election repeatedly stated that "The SNP will always support independence - but that is not what this election is about". [13]
The Smith Commission was announced by Prime Minister David Cameron on 19 September 2014 in the wake of the 'No' vote in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. The establishment of the commission was part of the process of fulfilling The Vow made by the leaders of the three main unionist parties during the last days of the referendum campaign. The Vow promised the devolution of more powers from the Parliament of the United Kingdom to the Scottish Parliament in the event of a No vote.
Labour only returned a single MP at Edinburgh South; a reduction of 40 seats compared to the previous election. The party lost out heavily to the SNP in working-class areas around the Scottish Central Belt, with Scottish Labour's safest constituency (Glasgow North East) returning the largest swing at the general election for any seat in the UK with 39.3% from Labour to SNP. The party performed best in more affluent constituencies, with then-Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy missing out in his former constituency of East Renfrewshire by just 3,718 votes. Labour's next closest result was at Edinburgh North and Leith, where they missed out to the SNP by 5,597 votes, and in East Lothian, where the SNP polled ahead of Labour by 6,803 votes.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats lost 10 of their 11 Westminster seats from 2010, with their safest seat in the UK - Orkney and Shetland - remaining as the only Liberal Democrat seat in Scotland. They marginally lost out to the SNP in East Dunbartonshire, where former Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson lost out to the SNP by 2,167 votes. Among those to lose their seat at the election were: former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander. The Liberal Democrats finished in third place at Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk and West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, seats which they had held at the previous election.
The Scottish Conservative Party hads not held a majority of Scottish seats at a general election since 1955 and lost all Scottish representation at the 1997 general election. Since 2001, the party had held only one Scottish seat in the House of Commons. In 2005, following the re-organisation of Scottish constituencies, that seat was Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, a mostly rural constituency near the Scottish Borders. In 2015, it's share of the vote in Scotland decreased by 1.8% but managed to retain Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, as it's only Scottish seat. It had been reported the party could gain Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, [14] a seat which they lost out to the Scottish National Party by a meagre 0.6% of the vote.
The SNP polled slightly under half of the votes, 49.97%, in Scotland at the 2015 general election; the largest vote share at a general election in Scotland for a party since the Conservatives won a majority of the popular vote, 50.1%, in 1955.
The impact of the 2016 EU referendum and a proposed second Scottish independence referendum was a large theme at the snap 2017 general election. [15] The SNP incorrectly predicted that many pro-union voters would switch allegiance to the party in order to remain within the European Union.[ citation needed ] Polling from YouGov suggests people moving towards independence as a result of Brexit would be offset by the number of previously pro-independence Leave voters saying they would vote against independence as a result of Brexit. [16]
A study by Electoral Calculus, published on 14 May 2017, concluded that the Conservatives could win 11 seats in Scotland. [17] [18]
Party [22] | Seats | Votes | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | Gains | Losses | Net +/- | % seats | Total votes | % votes | Change | ||
SNP | 35 | 0 | 21 | 59.3 | 977,569 | 36.9 | |||
Conservative | 13 | 12 | 0 | 22.0 | 757,949 | 28.6 | |||
Labour | 7 | 6 | 0 | 11.9 | 717,007 | 27.1 | |||
Liberal Democrat | 4 | 3 | 0 | 6.8 | 179,061 | 6.8 | |||
Scottish Green | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 5,886 | 0.2 | |||
UKIP | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 5,302 | 0.2 | |||
Others | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 6,921 | 0.3 | |||
2,649,695 | 66.4 |
At the election the SNP remained the largest party in Scotland, taking the vast majority of seats situated around the more industrial Central Belt of the country, between Balloch, Dundee, Irvine, Kilmarnock and Livingston, [22] where the campaign in favour of Scottish independence performed best at the 2014 independence referendum. [23] The party also took the most votes and a majority of seats in three out of four major cities in Scotland (Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh), however Labour were within 1,200 votes of taking the most votes in Edinburgh and were within 200 votes of gaining two additional seats in Glasgow. [24] The SNP failed to win a majority of the vote in any of Scotland's 59 constituencies. [25]
The Scottish Conservatives performed best in areas where the campaign in favour of remaining part of the United Kingdom performed best in at the 2014 independence referendum and in areas where the campaign to leave the European Union performed best in at the 2016 EU membership referendum. [23] [26] The Conservatives formed the largest party in the south of the country through Dumfries and Galloway, the Scottish Borders and South Ayrshire, where they won four seats in total. They also gained the East Renfrewshire constituency, an affluent commuter suburb on the outskirts of Glasgow which was the safest Conservative constituency in Scotland before their collapse at the 1997 general election, [27] and gained the Ochil and South Perthshire and Stirling constituencies in Central Scotland, coming within 21 votes of gaining Perth and North Perthshire, the second closest result in Scotland and the third closest across the United Kingdom as a whole. [24] Six out of seven constituencies in the North-East of Scotland voted Conservative, including former SNP party leader and First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond's constituency of Gordon, and the SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson's seat of Moray. Two out of three seats covering the city of Aberdeen returned Conservative MP's.
Scottish Labour retained their Edinburgh South constituency with a significant majority of 15,514 votes (32.4%), making it the safest constituency in Scotland. They also regained a number previously safe Labour working class constituencies in the Central Belt of Scotland, including Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill, Glasgow North East, Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath and Rutherglen and Hamilton West, gaining a further two seats in Lothian (East Lothian and Midlothian). The party were within 1,400 votes of gaining a further six seats from the SNP in Greater Glasgow. [25]
The Liberal Democrats gained the suburban constituencies of East Dunbartonshire and Edinburgh West on the outskirts of Glasgow and Edinburgh respectively. The party also regained their former heartland of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, a large rural constituency covering the northernmost parts of Great Britain, with Orkney and Shetland again becoming the safest Lib Dem constituency in the UK in vote share terms, with a majority 19.6% of the vote. They lost out to the SNP in the North East Fife constituency by just 2 votes (0.0%), the closest result in the United Kingdom at a general election since the result in Winchester in 1997. [28] However, the party's vote collapsed to the Conservatives in Aberdeenshire, the Borders and in parts of the Highlands.
Rank | Constituency | Winning party 2015 | Swing Required | Liberal Democrats' place 2015 | Result | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | East Dunbartonshire | SNP | 2.0% | 2nd | Liberal Democrats | ||
2 | Edinburgh West | SNP | 2.9% | 2nd | Liberal Democrats | ||
3 | North East Fife | SNP | 4.9% | 2nd | SNP | ||
4 | Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross | SNP | 5.7% | 2nd | Liberal Democrats | ||
5 | Ross, Skye and Lochaber | SNP | 6.1% | 2nd | SNP | ||
6 | Gordon | SNP | 7.5% | 2nd | Conservative |
Rank | Constituency | Winning party 2015 | Swing Required | SNP's place 2015 | Result | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale | Conservative | 0.8% | 2nd | Conservative | ||
2 | Orkney and Shetland | Liberal Democrats | 1.8% | 2nd | Liberal Democrats | ||
3 | Edinburgh South | Labour | 2.7% | 2nd | Labour |
The Scottish National Party is a Scottish nationalist and social-democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence. It is the second-largest political party by membership in the United Kingdom, behind the Labour Party and ahead of the Conservative Party, it is the third-largest by overall representation in the House of Commons, behind the Conservative Party and the Labour Party, and it is the largest political party in Scotland, where it has the most seats in the Scottish Parliament and 35 out of the 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The current Scottish National Party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, has served as First Minister of Scotland since November 2014.
Scotland is a country which is currently in a political union with the rest of the United Kingdom. Having been directly governed by the UK Government since 1707, a system of devolution was established in 1999, after the Scottish people voted by a firm majority to re-establish a primary law making Scottish Parliament in a referendum held in 1997.
In Scotland, the Scottish National Party (SNP) is a centre left, social democratic political party which campaigns for Scottish independence. The SNP has controlled Scotland's devolved legislature since the 2007 election as a minority government, and since the 2011 election as a majority government. Its leader, Nicola Sturgeon, is the First Minister of Scotland.
Unionism in Scotland is a political movement which seeks to keep Scotland within the United Kingdom (UK). Scotland is one of four countries of the United Kingdom which has its own devolved government and Scottish Parliament, as well as representation in the UK Parliament. There are many strands of political Unionism in Scotland, some of which have ties to Unionism and Loyalism in Northern Ireland. The three main political parties in the UK: the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats all support Scotland remaining part of the UK.
Edinburgh South is a constituency of the House of Commons of the UK Parliament created in 1885. The constituency has been represented by the Labour Party's Ian Murray since 2010. Murray was the only Labour MP in Scotland to retain his seat at the 2015 general election, and did so with an increased majority, where he result rendered it the 23rd-most marginal Labour seat by percentage of majority nationwide.
North East Fife is a county constituency in Fife, Scotland, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Stephen Gethins since 2015.
Glasgow East is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system of voting.
East Renfrewshire is a constituency of the House of Commons, to the south of Glasgow, Scotland. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) using the first-past-the-post system of voting.
Scotland constitutes a single constituency of the European Parliament. In 2014 it elected six MEPs, using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.
The Scottish Labour Party is the devolved Scottish section of the UK Labour Party.
The Scottish Conservatives, officially the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, is the branch of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom that operates in Scotland. Describing itself as a "patriotic party of the Scottish centre-right", it is the second-largest party in the Scottish Parliament and Scottish local government. It also sends the second-largest Scottish representation to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, after the SNP in each respect.
Scotland has elections to several bodies: the Scottish Parliament, the United Kingdom Parliament, the European Parliament, local councils and community councils.
The 2011 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament.
The 2008 Glasgow East by-election was a by-election for the UK Parliamentary constituency of Glasgow East which was held on 24 July 2008. The election was triggered when, on 30 June 2008, the sitting MP David Marshall stood down due to ill health.
These are the results of the 2010 United Kingdom general election in Scotland. The election was held on 6 May 2010 and all 59 seats in Scotland were contested. There were no seat changes from the 2005 general election, although Labour took back 2 seats that it had lost in by-elections.
The Scottish parliament election, 2016 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2016 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the fifth election held since the devolved parliament was established in 1999. It was the first parliamentary election in Scotland in which 16 and 17 year olds were eligible to vote, under the provisions of the Scottish Elections Act. It was also the first time the three largest parties were led by women.
The 2017 Scottish local elections were held on Thursday 4 May, in all 32 local authorities. The SNP retained its position as the largest party in terms of votes and councillors, despite suffering minor losses. The Conservatives made gains and displaced Labour as the second largest party, while the Liberal Democrats suffered a net loss of councillors despite increasing their share of the vote. Minor parties and independents polled well; and independent councillors retained majority control over the 3 island councils. For the first time since the local government reforms in 1995, all councils fell under no overall control.
The 2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland was held on 7 May 2015 and all 59 seats were contested under the first-past-the-post electoral system. Unlike the 2010 general election, where no seats changed party, the Scottish National Party (SNP) managed to win all but three seats in Scotland in an unprecedented landslide gaining a total of fifty-six seats and also become the first party in sixty years to win 50% of the Scottish vote. It saw the Labour Party suffer its worst ever election defeat within Scotland losing 40 of the 41 seats they were defending, including the seats of Scottish Labour Party leader Jim Murphy and also the then Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander. The Liberal Democrats lost ten of the eleven seats they were defending with the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander and former leader Charles Kennedy also losing their seats. The election also saw the worst performance by the Conservative Party which received its lowest share of the vote since its creation in 1965, although it retained the one seat that it previously held. In all, 50 of the 59 seats changed party, 49 of them being won by first-time MPs.
Kirsten Frances Oswald is a Scottish National Party politician. She was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Renfrewshire at the 2015 general election, but was unseated at the 2017 snap election on 8 June. Subsequently, in 2018 she was elected Chairman and Business Convener of the SNP, replacing current Scottish Government Finance Secretary Derek MacKay.
Tommy Sheppard is a Scottish National Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Edinburgh East since May 2015. He is the SNP spokesperson on the Cabinet Office in the House of Commons. He is also known for founding The Stand Comedy Clubs in Edinburgh and Glasgow.