Five years ago, the voters of Edinburgh West went to the polls in the UK’s last general election in December.
Scottish Liberal Democrat Christine Jardine, who had first won the seat in 2017 and was the constituency’s MP until Parliament was dissolved for the 2019 poll, secured re-election with 21,766 votes. This was a vote share of nearly 40%; an increase of nearly 6% compared with her share in 2017 and she won by a margin of 3,769 which was the smallest majority in the Edinburgh seats.
In second place the SNP candidate Sarah Masson, who now works for the SNP, secured 17,997 votes and 33% of the vote share. Because of the Liberal Democrat and SNP’s frequent pairing at the top of the constituency’s poll, the seat has often been called a two-dog race between the two, something the other parties vehemently reject.
But it is true to say that the LibDems have a stranglehold over western Edinburgh – there are three Liberal Democrat councillors in the Corstorphine/Murrayfield ward which is a first on Edinburgh council.
None of the other parties got more than 10,000 votes. The Scottish Conservatives’ Graham Hutchison who was a councillor at the time came third with 9,283 votes and 17% of the vote share, while Scottish Labour candidate Craig Bolton secured 4,460 votes. Last amongst the major parties was the Scottish Greens, whose candidate Elaine Gunn with 1,027 votes.
The 2019 results are below.
