Tommy Sheppard has been SNP MP for the old constituency of Edinburgh East for the last two terms, and was one of the 56 SNP MPs who swept in to Westminster in 2015.
Last time round he increased his vote share and his majority was 10,417. The newly named constituency now includes the Honest Toun in the name with an electorate of 75,705. There are now 57 seats in Scotland with the two being “lost” in Caithness Ross Skye and Lochaber and Central Glasgow.
He told The Edinburgh Reporter that the dogs in the street know that Keir Starmer will become Prime Minister after this election, particularly as the Tories are “split right down the middle”. He said: “Labour is going to have an embarrassing majority in the parliament and they don’t need Scottish votes.”
He continued: “The choice people have here is to put somebody into Parliament, who will do what Keir Starmer says, or put somebody into parliament, who will hold Keir Starmer to account and push him to do a little bit better than he says he’s going to do at the moment.”
Previously the SNP Scotland spokesperson for the SNP, the Northern Ireland born Sheppard has made himself heard in this time. He was involved in setting up The Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh and Glasgow and the little know fact is that he began to study medicine at University of Aberdeen although he graduated with a degree in politics and sociology. He lived in London for a while and became a Labour councillor on Hackney London Borough Council.
The newly drawn constituency boundaries are shown on the map below. Boundaries have been redrawn to include the correct number of constituents – anything between 69,724 to 77,062 voters, and the boundary has pushed a little further east than before.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
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