General election in Scotland 2021

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in Scotland 2021next →

(Total mandates in%)

%

50

40

30th

20th

10

0

49.6

24.0

17.1

6.2

3.1

Gains and losses

compared to 2016

% p

2

0

-2

-4

+0.8

± 0.0

−1.5

+1.5

−0.8

Distribution of seats

22nd

8th

64

4th

31

22nd 8th 64 4th 31

A total of 129 seats

SLP : 22
SGP : 8
SNP : 64
SLD : 4
SCP : 31

The parliamentary elections in Scotland in 2021 took place on May 6, 2021. It was the sixth election to the Scottish Parliament . The general election in Wales , the election of the Mayor of London and local elections in the United Kingdom also took place on the same day .

Election date

According to the Scotland Act 1998 , an ordinary parliamentary election should have taken place on the first Thursday in May 2020, four years after the 2016 elections . That date clashed with the UK's 2020 general election . In November 2015, the Scottish Government published a bill to extend Parliament's term of office to five years.

This law was passed by Parliament on February 25, 2016 and received royal approval on March 30, 2016 , setting the election for May 6, 2021. The date can be varied by the monarch by up to a month at the suggestion of the chairman. If Parliament itself decides that it should be dissolved - with at least two-thirds of the members (i.e. 86 members) voting in favor - the chairman proposes a date for an extraordinary election and the parliament is dissolved by the monarch by royal proclamation.

Electoral system

In contrast to the British general election, the Scottish Parliament is elected according to a mixed-member proportional system . Of the 129 MPs, 73 are elected with a simple majority in their constituencies.

The additional 56 elected representatives are determined in the eight Scottish regions: The votes for the seven regional representatives are distributed among the parties according to the D'Hondt procedure , so that the result corresponds to a proportional representation. There is no regulation for overhang mandates . The electoral age was reduced from 18 to 16 years by decision of the Scottish Parliament in 2015.

Parties and candidates

Top candidates
Political party:
Scottish National Party (SNP)	Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party (Conservative)	Scottish Labor Party (Labor)	Scottish Green Party (Green)
Party leader:

Nicola Sturgeon	Douglas Ross	Anas Sarwar	Lorna Slater / Patrick Harvie
Political orientation:
Scottish separatism , left-wing liberalism	Conservatism , Scottish Unionism	Social Democracy , Scottish Unionism	Green politics , Scottish separatism

Top candidates
Political party:
Scottish Liberal Democrats (Lib. Dem.)	Reform UK	Alba party	All For Unity (AFU)
Party leader:

Willie Rennie	Michelle Ballantyne (Reform UK leader in the Scottish Parliament)	Alex Salmond	George Galloway
Political orientation:
Liberalism , Scottish Unionism	Pro-Brexit , EU skepticism , right-wing populism	Scottish separatism	Scottish unionism

Survey

Election forecasts

The determining question for the pollsters was whether the SNP would achieve an absolute majority. The odds are 50:50, said election researcher John Curtice .

course

The diagram below shows the poll history for the constituency vote.

Survey values averaged over monthly survey results, from the 2016 election to the 2021 election

Result

Scottish General Election 2021
Political party		Personalized proportional representation										Overall mandates
		Direct constituency mandates					Region (list mandates)					Overall mandates
		voices	%	+/-	Mandates	+/-	voices	%	+/-	Mandates	+/-	Mandates	+/-	%
	SNP	1,291,204	47.7	1.2	62	3	1,094,374	40.3	1.4	2	2	64	1	49.6
	Conservative	592,518	21.9	0.1	5	2	637.131	23.5	0.6	26	2	31		24.0
	Labor	584,392	21.6	1.0	2	1	485.819	17.9	1.2	20th	1	22nd	2	17.1
	Green	34.990	1.3	0.7	0		220.324	8.1	1.5	8th	2	8th	2	6.2
	Lib Dem	187,746	6.9	0.9	4th		137.152	5.1	0.1	0	1	4th	1	3.1
	Alba	-	-	-	-	-	44,913	1.7	New	0	New	0	New	0.0
	All for Unity	-	-	-	-	-	23,299	0.9	New	0	New	0	New	0.0
	Scottish Family Party	2,734	0.1	New	0	New	16,085	0.6	New	0	New	0	New	0.0
	Freedom Alliance	1,154	0.0	New	0	New	6,271	0.2	New	0	New	0	New	0.0
	Reform UK	-	-	-	-	-	5,793	0.2	New	0	New	0	New	0.0
	UKIP	699	0.0		0		3,848	0.1	1.9	0		0		0.0
	Others	5,573	0.1	0.1	0		31,604	1.2	0.7	0		0		0.0
	Independent	5,673	0.0		0		6.122	0.1	0.1	0		0		0.0
total		2,706,683	100%		73		2,712,735	100%		56		129		100%

Number of eligible voters	voter turnout
Number of eligible voters	%	+/-
4,280,785	63	7.6

Majorities in the constituencies (left, majority vote) and seats that were occupied by the regions (right, proportional representation)

Official end result

Summary of the election results

Direct constituency mandates

SNP			47.7%
Conservative			21.9%
Labor			21.6%
Lib Dem			6.9%
Green			1.3%
Otherwise.			0.6%

Region (list mandates)

SNP			40.3%
Conservative			23.5%
Labor			17.9%
Green			8.1%
Lib Dem			5.1%
Alba			1.7%
Otherwise.			3.4%

Parliament seats

SNP			49.6%
Conservative			24.0%
Labor			17.1%
Green			6.2%
Lib Dem			3.1%

Details

The election results by electoral region are listed below.

Central Scotland

Direct mandates

The following direct mandates were won in the constituencies of the electoral region of Central Scotland :

Constituency		Elected
Constituency		MPs	Political party	±
	Airdrie and Shotts	Neil Gray	SNP	held
	Coatbridge and Chryston	Fulton MacGregor	SNP	held
	Cumbernauld and Kilsyth	Jamie Hepburn	SNP	held
	East Kilbride	Collette Stevenson	SNP	held
	Falkirk East	Michelle Thomson	SNP	held
	Falkirk West	Michael Matheson	SNP	held
	Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse	Christina McKelvie	SNP	held
	Motherwell and Wishaw	Clare Adamson	SNP	held
	Uddingston and Bellshill	Stephanie Callaghan	SNP	held

List mandates

In addition to the direct mandates, the following list mandates were won:

	MPs	Seats	±	voices	%	±
Labor	Richard Leonard Monica Lennon Mark Griffin	3	−1	77,623	23.7	−1.1
Conservative	Stephen Kerr Graham Simpson Meghan Gallagher	3	± 0	59,856	18.3	+2.2
Green	Gillian MacKay	1	+1	19,512	6th	+1.3

Glasgow

Direct mandates

The following direct mandates were won in the constituencies of the Glasgow electoral region :

Constituency		Elected
Constituency		MPs	Political party	±
	Glasgow Anniesland	Bill Kidd	SNP	held
	Glasgow Cathcart	James Dornan	SNP	held
	Glasgow Kelvin	Kaukab Stewart	SNP	held
	Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn	Bob Doris	SNP	held
	Glasgow Pollok	Humza Yousaf	SNP	held
	Glasgow Provan	Ivan McKee	SNP	held
	Glasgow Shettleston	John Mason	SNP	held
	Glasgow Southside	Nicola Sturgeon	SNP	held
	Rutherglen	Clare Haughey	SNP	held

List mandates

In addition to the direct mandates, the following list mandates were won:

	MPs	Seats	±	voices	%	±
Labor	Pauline McNeill Anas Sarwar Paul Sweeney Pam Duncan-Glancy	4th	± 0	74,088	24.3	+0.5
Conservative	Annie Wells Sandesh Gulhane	2	± 0	37,027	12.1	+0.2
Green	Patrick Harvie	1	± 0	36,114	11.8	+2.4

Highlands and Islands

Direct mandates

The following direct mandates were won in the constituencies of the Highlands and Islands electoral region :

Constituency		Elected
Constituency		MPs	Political party	±
	Argyll and Bute	Jenni Minto	SNP	held
	Caithness, Sutherland and Ross	Maree Todd	SNP	held
	Inverness and Nairn	Fergus Ewing	SNP	held
	Moray	Richard Lochhead	SNP	held
	Na h-Eileanan to Iar	Alasdair Allan	SNP	held
	Orkney	Liam McArthur	Lib Dem	held
	Shetland	Beatrice Wishart	Lib Dem	held
	Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch	Kate Forbes	SNP	held

List mandates

In addition to the direct mandates, the following list mandates were won:

	MPs	Seats	±	voices	%	±
Conservative	Douglas Ross Donald Cameron Edward Mountain Jamie Halcro Johnston	4th	+1	60,779	25.4	+3.6
SNP	Emma Roddick	1	± 0	96,433	40.4	+0.7
Labor	Rhoda Grant	1	−1	22,713	9.5	−1.7
Green	Ariane Burgess	1	± 0	17,729	7.4	+0.2

Lothian

Direct mandates

In the constituencies of the election region Lothian following direct mandates were won:

Constituency		Elected
Constituency		MPs	Political party	±
	Almond Valley	Angela Constance	SNP	held
	Edinburgh Central	Angus Robertson	SNP	gained
	Edinburgh Eastern	Ash Denham	SNP	held
	Edinburgh Northern and Leith	Ben Macpherson	SNP	held
	Edinburgh Pentlands	Gordon MacDonald	SNP	held
	Edinburgh Southern	Daniel Johnson	Labor	held
	Edinburgh Western	Alex Cole-Hamilton	Lib Dem	held
	Linlithgow	Fiona Hyslop	SNP	held
	Midlothian North and Musselburgh	Colin Beattie	SNP	held

List mandates

In addition to the direct mandates, the following list mandates were won:

	MPs	Seats	±	voices	%	±
Conservative	Miles Briggs Sue Webber Jeremy Balfour	3	± 0	78,595	19.9	−3.0
Labor	Sarah Boyack Foysol Choudhury	2	± 0	76,689	19.4	−1.4
Green	Alison Johnstone Lorna Slater	2	± 0	49,984	12.7	+2.1

Mid Scotland and Fife

Direct mandates

The following direct mandates were won in the constituencies of the electoral region of Mid Scotland and Fife :

Constituency		Elected
Constituency		MPs	Political party	±
	Clackmannanshire and Dunblane	Keith Brown	SNP	held
	Cowdenbeath	Annabelle Ewing	SNP	held
	Dunfermline	Shirley-Anne Somerville	SNP	held
	Kirkcaldy	David Torrance	SNP	held
	Mid Fife and Glenrothes	Jenny Gilruth	SNP	held
	North East Fife	Willie Rennie	Lib Dem	held
	Perthshire North	John Swinney	SNP	held
	Perthshire South and Kinross-shire	Jim Fairlie	SNP	held
	Stirling	Evelyn Tweed	SNP	held

List mandates

In addition to the direct mandates, the following list mandates were won:

	MPs	Seats	±	voices	%	±
Conservative	Murdo Fraser Elizabeth Smith Dean Lockhart Alexander Stewart	4th	± 0	85.909	25.0	−0.2
Labor	Claire Brennan-Baker Alex Rowley	2	± 0	52,626	15.3	−2.3
Green	Mark Ruskell	1	± 0	28,654	8.3	+2.2

North East Scotland

Direct mandates

The following direct mandates were won in the constituencies of the electoral region of North East Scotland :

Constituency		Elected
Constituency		MPs	Political party	±
	Aberdeen Central	Kevin Stewart	SNP	held
	Aberdeen Donside	Jackie Dunbar	SNP	held
	Aberdeen South and North Kincardine	Audrey Nicoll	SNP	held
	Aberdeenshire East	Gillian Martin	SNP	held
	Aberdeenshire West	Alexander Burnett	Conservative	held
	Angus North and Mearns	Mairi Gougeon	SNP	held
	Angus South	Graeme Dey	SNP	held
	Banffshire and Buchan Coast	Karen Adam	SNP	held
	Dundee City East	Shona Robison	SNP	held
	Dundee City West	Joe FitzPatrick	SNP	held

List mandates

In addition to the direct mandates, the following list mandates were won:

	MPs	Seats	±	voices	%	±
Conservative	Liam Kerr Douglas Lumsden Maurice Golden Tess White	4th	± 0	110,555	30.6	+2.6
Labor	Michael Marra Mercedes Villalba	2	± 0	41,062	11.4	−1.2
Green	Maggie Chapman	1	+1	22,735	6.3	+1.4
Lib Dem		0	−1	18.051	5.0	−1.0

South Scotland

Direct mandates

The following direct mandates were won in the constituencies of the electoral region of South Scotland :

Constituency		Elected
Constituency		MPs	Political party	±
	Ayr	Siobhian Brown	SNP	gained
	Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley	Elena Whitham	SNP	held
	Clydesdale	Mairi McAllan	SNP	held
	Dumfriesshire	Oliver Mundell	Conservative	held
	East Lothian	Paul McLennan	SNP	gained
	Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire	Rachael Hamilton	Conservative	held
	Galloway and West Dumfries	Finlay Carson	Conservative	held
	Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley	Willie Coffey	SNP	held
	Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale	Christine Grahame	SNP	held

List mandates

In addition to the direct mandates, the following list mandates were won:

	MPs	Seats	±	voices	%	±
Conservative	Craig Hoy Brian Whittle Sharon Dowey	3	+1	121,730	33.5	+1.4
Labor	Colin Smyth Carol Mochan Martin Whitfield	3	+1	57,236	15.7	−2.1
SNP	Emma Harper	1	−2	136,741	37.6	−0.7

West Scotland

Direct mandates

The following direct mandates were won in the constituencies of the electoral region of West Scotland :

Constituency		Elected
Constituency		MPs	Political party	±
	Clydebank and Milngavie	Marie McNair	SNP	held
	Cunninghame North	Kenneth Gibson	SNP	held
	Cunninghame South	Ruth Maguire	SNP	held
	Dumbarton	Jackie Baillie	Labor	held
	Eastwood	Jackson Carlaw	Conservative	held
	Greenock and Inverclyde	Stuart McMillan	SNP	held
	Paisley	George Adam	SNP	held
	Renfrewshire North and West	Natalie Don	SNP	held
	Renfrewshire South	Tom Arthur	SNP	held
	Strathkelvin and Bearsden	Rona Mackay	SNP	held

List mandates

In addition to the direct mandates, the following list mandates were won:

	MPs	Seats	±	voices	%	±
Labor	Neil Bibby Katy Clark Paul O'Kane	3	± 0	83,782	22.2	−0.3
Conservative	Russell Findlay Jamie Greene Pam Gosal	3	± 0	82,640	21.9	−0.3
Green	Ross Greer	1	± 0	26,632	7.1	+1.8

Trivia

Newly elected MPs Kaukab Stewart and Pam Gosal are the first female MPs in the Scottish Parliament with a migrant background . Stewart is a member of the Scottish National Party, was born in Pakistan and won the direct mandate for the Glasgow Kelvin constituency , Gosal is a member of the conservative Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, is a Scottish native from Glasgow with Indian ancestry and moved via a list mandate for the electoral region West Scotland in the Scottish Parliament.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Scottish Elections (Dates) Act 2016. legislation.gov.uk, 2016, accessed September 9, 2019 .
^ Scotland Act 1998. 2. Ordinary general elections. legislation.gov.uk, 1998, accessed September 9, 2019 .
^ Cut in Scottish voting age passed unanimously. June 18, 2015, accessed May 2, 2016 .
^ Right-wing populist parties are polling well in Britain . In: The Economist , April 15, 2019.
↑ Scotland moves to the choice of fate , on n-tv.de
^ Scottish Parliament election 2021. Retrieved May 8, 2021 (British English).
↑ Why the SNP are now the Scottish Inter-National Party. Retrieved May 10, 2021 .
↑ Scottish election 2021: Kaukab Stewart is first woman of color elected to Holyrood. Retrieved May 8, 2021 .
^ Pam Gosal becomes first Indian woman to be elected as MSP in Scotland. Retrieved May 10, 2021 .

[election_act-1] Scottish Elections (Dates) Act 2016. legislation.gov.uk, 2016, accessed September 9, 2019 .

[2] Scotland Act 1998. 2. Ordinary general elections. legislation.gov.uk, 1998, accessed September 9, 2019 .

[3] Cut in Scottish voting age passed unanimously. June 18, 2015, accessed May 2, 2016 .

[4] Right-wing populist parties are polling well in Britain . In: The Economist , April 15, 2019.

[5] Scotland moves to the choice of fate , on n-tv.de

[6] Scottish Parliament election 2021. Retrieved May 8, 2021 (British English).

[7] Why the SNP are now the Scottish Inter-National Party. Retrieved May 10, 2021 .

[8] Scottish election 2021: Kaukab Stewart is first woman of color elected to Holyrood. Retrieved May 8, 2021 .

[9] Pam Gosal becomes first Indian woman to be elected as MSP in Scotland. Retrieved May 10, 2021 .


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