The UK Parliamentary General Election results for Edinburgh’s five constituencies were announced early this morning at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
The results reflected the Scottish Nationalist Party surge across Scotland which resulted in it winning 56 of the 59 Westminster seats, leaving the other "major" parties (Labour, Liberal Democrat, Conservative) with one seat each in the whole of Scotland.
Only one of the five Edinburgh seats did not go SNP - Labour's only seat in the whole of Scotland. After the previous UK general election in 2010 the SNP held no Edinburgh seats, Labour held four seats, and the Liberal Democrats one seat.
The Members of Parliament for each Edinburgh constituency in 2015 are listed below:
- Edinburgh East Constituency: Tommy Sheppard, SNP
- Edinburgh North & Leith Constituency: Deidre Leanne Brock, SNP
- Edinburgh South Constituency: Ian Murray, Labour
- Edinburgh South West Constituency: Joanna Catherine Cherry, SNP
- Edinburgh West Constituency: Michelle Rhonda Thompson SNP
Powerful SNP swing
The scale of the SNP swing was awe-inspiring. Tommy Sheppard in Edinburgh East saw a swing of 28.8%, Deidre Brock in North & Leith saw a swing of 31.3%, there was a swing of 30.8% in Edinburgh South West to SNP, and 25.8% swing in Edinburgh West to the SNP.
In Edinburgh South, although Labour's Ian Murray clung on to his seat, the swing was over 26% to the SNP (from 7.7% of the vote in 2010 to 33.8% in 2015).
Returning Officer Sue Bruce said: “I’d like to pay tribute to the work of the Council’s election team who have put months of hard work and planning into delivering the election. I would also like to thank Police Scotland, the candidates and their agents and the media for working constructively with us to conduct proceedings properly and efficiently.”
“This is the first time the EICC has been the venue for an election count and I would like to thank Marshall Dallas, Chief Executive, and his team for all their support.”
Edinburgh stats
Turnout was 73.01%. The electorate totalled 357718, and 261165 votes were cast in Edinburgh.