Labour have taken four of Edinburgh’s five seats as the landslide victory, seen up and down the UK, swept away Scottish National Party (SNP) and Conservative MPs before it.
After winning 48 of Scotland’s 59 seats in the 2019 election, the SNP is expected to be cut down to just 9 seats when all votes are finally counted.
The results in Edinburgh were indicative of the trend across Scotland's central belt, with the SNP losing badly.
Edinburgh
Returning Officer for Edinburgh, Paul Lawrence, announced the Edinburgh results at the Royal Highland Centre early today (Friday 5 July).
Tracy Gilbert for Scottish Labour Party ousted the SNP’s Deidre Brock in Edinburgh North & Leith with a convincing majority of 7,268 (42% of the vote).
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour’s Ian Murray comfortably held Edinburgh South with a majority of 17,251.
Tommy Sheppard, who won his Edinburgh East seat with close to 50% of the vote in 2019, was swept away in the new constituency of Edinburgh East & Musselburgh by Scottish Labour’s Chris Murray. Murray won a majority of 3,715.
It was a similar story for SNP candidate Joanna Cherry in Edinburgh South West, who went from a majority of 24,830 in the 2019 election to a loss to Scottish Labour Party candidate Scott Arthur, who won with a majority of 6,217.
Edinburgh West was the only seat, of the five Edinburgh seats, that didn’t turn red on Friday night: Christine Anne Jardine with the Scottish Liberal Democrats held her seat with a majority of 16,470.
Out of the electorate of 375,712 people, 240,799 votes were cast, representing a turnout of 64.09%.
Returning Officer for Edinburgh, Paul Lawrence said:
“I’d like to sincerely thank our fantastic colleagues in the Elections team and across the Council for their hard work, dedication, and diligence in what has been a challenging election to deliver under tight timescales. This is truly public service at its very best and one of the most important duties that we’re bound to carry out. I’d also like to thank Police Scotland, the candidates, agents, and media for working alongside us to conduct proceedings properly and efficiently.
Our new MPs have my best wishes and I’m sure they will all be great representatives of our city and its people.
Finally, I’d like to thank our residents for making their voices heard and taking the time to cast their votes.”