2019 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 12 December 2019,^[1] two and a half years after the previous general election in June 2017. The Scottish National Party (SNP) received the most votes (45%, up 8.1% from the previous election) and won 48^{[n 1]} out of 59 seats—a gain of 13 over those won in 2017, and 81% of the Scottish seats in the House of Commons.^[2]

2019 United Kingdom general election

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All 59 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
Turnout	68.1% 1.6pp
First party Second party   Leader Nicola Sturgeon Boris Johnson Party SNP Conservative Leader since 14 November 2014 23 July 2019 Last election 35 seats, 36.9% 13 seats, 28.6% Seats won 48[n 1] 6 Seat change 13 7 Popular vote 1,242,380 692,939 Percentage 45.0% 25.1% Swing 8.1pp 3.5pp   Third party Fourth party   Leader Jo Swinson (lost seat) Jeremy Corbyn Party Liberal Democrats Labour Leader since 22 July 2019 12 September 2015 Last election 4 seats, 6.8% 7 seats, 27.1% Seats won 4 1 Seat change 6 Popular vote 263,417 511,838 Percentage 9.5% 18.6% Swing 2.8pp 8.5pp
Coloured according to the winning party's vote share in each constituency

SNP gains came at the expense of both Labour and the Conservatives. The Tories remained the largest unionist party in Scotland even though they lost more than half of their Scottish seats, winning six compared to thirteen in 2017. Labour was reduced to only one seat, down from seven. The Liberal Democrats won four Scottish seats for no net change, although party leader Jo Swinson (herself the only major party leader to stand for election in Scotland) was unseated in her bid for re-election by her SNP challenger.

Labour's vote share was its lowest at a Westminster election in Scotland since December 1910.^[3][4]

Political context

The June 2017 general election in Scotland was fought in the aftermath of the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, in which the SNP won a third term in government but lost its overall majority in the Scottish Parliament (although the proportional electoral system at Holyrood was intentionally designed to make it very difficult for any one party to gain a majority). The 2016 EU referendum was held a month later on Thursday 23 June, and the final result was for the United Kingdom to leave the EU, although Scotland voted 62.0% Remain. Negotiations then began after the invocation of Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union in March 2017, which was expected to dominate the snap general election campaign.^[5]

In March First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called for a second independence referendum due to Scotland's vote to remain in the EU the previous year. The result was the issue dominated the 2017 general election and, although the SNP remained the largest party, their number of seats was much reduced, with the Scottish Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats gaining a total of 21 seats.^[6] Former First Minister Alex Salmond and Westminster leader Angus Robertson were among those who lost their seats.^[6]

In the 2019 European Parliament election, Scottish Labour lost its two MEPs, UKIP lost its seat, the SNP increased its number to three, the Scottish Conservatives held theirs and the Brexit Party and Liberal Democrats gained one each.

Opinion polling

Main article: Opinion polling for the 2019 United Kingdom general election § Scotland

Pollster/client(s)	Date(s) conducted	Sample size	SNP	Con	Lab	Lib Dem	Green	UKIP	Change UK	Brexit	Other	Lead
2019 general election	12 Dec 2019	–	45.0%	25.1%	18.6%	9.5%	1.0%	0.1%	–	0.5%	0.1%	19.9%
Survation/The Courier	10–11 Dec 2019	1,012	43%	28%	20%	7%	1%	–	–	1%	–	15%
YouGov (MRP)	4–10 Dec 2019	[7]	41%	27%	20%	10%	1%	–	–	1%	–	14%
Panelbase/Sunday Times	3–6 Dec 2019	1,020	39%	29%	21%	10%	1%	–	–	0%	0%	10%
YouGov/The Times	29 Nov–3 Dec 2019	1,002	44%	28%	15%	12%	1%	–	–	0%	0%	16%
Ipsos MORI/STV	19–25 Nov 2019	1,046	44%	26%	16%	11%	2%	–	–	<1%	–	18%
Panelbase/The Sunday Times	20–22 Nov 2019	1,009	40%	28%	20%	11%	<1%	–	–	<1%	<1%	12%
	15 Nov	Nominations for candidates close (final candidates announced)
	6 Nov	Parliament dissolved and official campaign period begins
YouGov	23–25 Oct 2019	1,060	42%	22%	12%	13%	4%	0%	0%	6%	0%	20%
Panelbase/The Sunday Times	9–11 Oct 2019	1,003	39%	21%	19%	13%	2%	–	–	5%	–	18%
YouGov/The Times	30 Aug–3 Sep 2019	1,059	43%	20%	15%	12%	4%	0%	0%	6%	0%	23%
	29 Aug 2019	Ruth Davidson resigns as leader of the Scottish Conservatives[8]
Panelbase/The Sunday Times	18–20 Jun 2019	1,024	38%	18%	17%	13%	2%	<1%	<1%	9%	–	20%
Panelbase/The Sunday Times	14–17 May 2019	1,021	38%	18%	19%	10%	3%	1%	2%	9%	<1%	19%
YouGov/The Times	24–26 Apr 2019	1,029	43%	20%	17%	9%	3%	1%	2%	4%	0%	23%
Panelbase/The Sunday Times	18–24 Apr 2019	1,018	38%	22%	21%	6%	2%	2%	3%	5%	<1%	16%
Survation/Scotland in Union	18–23 Apr 2019	1,012	41%	22%	24%	8%	–	–	–	–	5%	17%
Panelbase/Wings Over Scotland	28 Feb–6 Mar 2019	1,002	37%	27%	22%	7%	2%	2%	2%	–	<1%	10%
Survation/Scottish Daily Mail	1–4 Mar 2019	1,011	40%	24%	23%	8%	–	–	–	–	4%	16%
Panelbase/The Sunday Times	30 Nov–5 Dec 2018	1,028	37%	26%	26%	6%	2%	2%	–	–	<1%	11%
Survation/Scotland in Union	9–13 Nov 2018	1,013	39%	26%	24%	8%	–	–	–	–	3%	13%
Panelbase/Constitutional Commission	2–7 Nov 2018	1,050	37%	28%	25%	7%	2%	2%	–	–	3%	9%
Survation/Channel 4	20 Oct–2 Nov 2018	1,734	40%	27%	23%	7%	1%	1%	–	–	1%	13%
Survation/Daily Record	18–21 Oct 2018	1,017	36%	27%	26%	7%	1%	–	–	–	1%	9%
Survation/SNP	3–5 Oct 2018	1,013	37%	28%	26%	6%	–	–	–	–	2%	9%
Panelbase/The Sunday Times	28 Sep–4 Oct 2018	1,024	38%	27%	24%	6%	2%	2%	–	–	<1%	11%
Survation/The Sunday Post	28 Sep–2 Oct 2018	1,036	41%	26%	24%	7%	–	–	–	–	3%	15%
Survation/Daily Record	5–10 Jul 2018	1,004	42%	24%	23%	8%	–	–	–	–	3%	18%
Panelbase/Wings Over Scotland	21–26 Jun 2018	1,018	38%	27%	25%	7%	2%	<1%	–	–	<1%	11%
Panelbase/The Sunday Times	8–13 Jun 2018	1,021	38%	27%	27%	6%	2%	<1%	–	–	<1%	11%
YouGov/The Times	1–5 Jun 2018	1,075	40%	27%	23%	7%	2%	1%	–	–	1%	13%
Panelbase/The Sunday Times	23–28 Mar 2018	1,037	36%	28%	27%	6%	2%	1%	–	–	<1%	8%
Ipsos MORI/STV	5–11 Mar 2018	1,050	39%	25%	26%	6%	4%	0%	–	–	0%	13%
Survation/Daily Record	24–28 Jan 2018	1,029	39%	24%	27%	7%	–	–	–	–	3%	12%
YouGov/The Times	12–16 Jan 2018	1,002	36%	23%	28%	6%	3%	3%	–	–	0%	8%
Survation/The Sunday Post	1–5 Dec 2017	1,006	38%	24%	29%	7%	–	–	–	–	3%	9%
Survation/Daily Record	27–30 Nov 2017	1,017	37%	25%	28%	7%	–	–	–	–	3%	9%
	18 Nov 2017	Richard Leonard officially becomes leader of Scottish Labour[9]
YouGov/The Times	2–5 Oct 2017	1,135	40%	23%	30%	5%	1%	1%	–	–	0%	10%
Survation/Scottish Daily Mail	8–12 Sep 2017	1,016	39%	26%	26%	7%	–	–	–	–	2%	13%
Panelbase/The Sunday Times	31 Aug–7 Sep 2017	1,021	41%	27%	24%	6%	2%	–	–	–	–	14%
2017 general election	8 Jun 2017	–	36.9%	28.6%	27.1%	6.8%	0.2%	0.2%	–	–	0.3%	8.3%

Seat projections

Pollster/client(s)	Date(s) conducted	Con	Lab	SNP	Lib Dem	Green	Brexit	Other
2019 general election	12 December 2019	6	1	48	4	0	0	0
YouGov MRP	10 December 2019	9	5	41	4	0	0	0
Ipsos MORI Scotland/STV Archived 28 November 2019 at the Wayback Machine	28 November 2019	6	1	48	4	0	0	0
YouGov MRP	27 November 2019	11	2	42	4	0	0	0
2017 general election	8 June 2017	13	7	35	4	0	0	0

Campaign events

Television debates

Main article: 2019 United Kingdom general election § Television debates

Like the rest of the United Kingdom, Scottish broadcasters hosted television debates. On 20 November, BBC Scotland's flagship political programme, Debate Night, moderated by Stephen Jardine, hosted a Young Voter's Special with representatives from the main parties where they debated in front of an audience of voters aged under 30. On 3 December, STV hosted a television debate moderated by Colin Mackay^[10] and BBC Scotland announced that they would host a debate on 10 December, two days before the election, moderated by Sarah Smith.

Date	Organisers	Venue	Moderators	P  Present   S  Standing-in   NI  Not invited   A  Absent   I  Invited
				Con	Lab	SNP	LD	Green	Brexit
20 November	BBC Scotland (Debate Night)[n 2]	Scottish Youth Theatre, Glasgow	Stephen Jardine	S Gallacher	S Sweeney	S Linden	S Cole-Hamilton	P Slater	NI
26 November	Sky News	City Observatory, Edinburgh	Adam Boulton	S Greene	P Leonard	S Blackford	P Rennie	A Harvie	NI
2 December	BBC (Victoria Derbyshire Election Debate)	North Berwick, East Lothian	Victoria Derbyshire	S Hoy	S Whitfield	S MacAskill	S O'Riordan	NI	NI
3 December[10]	STV	STV Pacific Quay, Glasgow	Colin Mackay	P Carlaw	P Leonard	P Sturgeon	P Rennie	NI	NI
10 December	BBC Scotland	BBC Pacific Quay, Glasgow	Sarah Smith	P Carlaw	P Leonard	P Sturgeon	P Rennie	NI	NI

The Scottish National Party have been represented in UK-wide television debates in addition due to being the third largest party in the House of Commons.

Reaction

Date(s) administered	Poll source	Sample size	Carlaw	Leonard	Sturgeon	Rennie	Lead
STV Leaders Debate
3 December 2019	STV News Archived 3 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine[n 3]	7,170	10%	5%	80%	5%	70%
3 December 2019	HeraldScotland	9,115	7%	4%	87%	2%	80%
BBC Leaders Debate
10 December 2019	HeraldScotland	2,834	7%	17%	72%	4%	55%

Leader's interviews

In addition to television debates, BBC Scotland and STV also interviewed Scottish party leaders on The Nine and Scotland Tonight in the run-up to the general election, alongside guest commentary too.

On 4 December, the four main Scottish party leaders took part in leaders interviews with fictional character Chief Commissioner Cameron Mickelson from the BBC Scotland sitcom, Scot Squad.^[11]

Results

Party[12]		Seats					Aggregate votes
		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	Of all (%)	Total	Of all (%)	Difference
	SNP	48[n 1]	14	1	13	81.36	1,242,380	45.0	8.1
	Conservative	6	0	7	7	10.17	692,939	25.1	3.5
	Labour	1	0	6	6	1.69	511,838	18.6	8.5
	Liberal Democrats	4	1	1		6.77	263,417	9.5	2.8
	Scottish Green	0	0	0		0.0	28,122	1.0	0.8
	Brexit Party	0	0	0		0.0	13,243	0.5	New
	UKIP	0	0	0		0.0	3,303	0.1	0.1
	Others	0	0	0		0.0	3,819	0.1	0.1
Total		59					2,759,061	68.1	1.6

• 
  2019 map of Scottish Constituencies - Results

Votes summary

Popular vote SNP   45.0% Conservative   25.1% Labour   18.6% Liberal Democrats   9.5% Greens   1.0% Brexit Party   0.5% UKIP   0.1% Other   0.1%

Parliament seats SNP   81.4% Conservative   10.2% Liberal Democrats   6.8% Labour   1.7%

List of constituencies by party

2019 UK general election (Scottish Westminster constituencies)
Party		Constituency
	SNP	Aberdeen North Aberdeen South Airdrie and Shotts Angus Argyll and Bute Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock Central Ayrshire Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East Dundee East Dundee West Dunfermline and West Fife East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow East Dunbartonshire East Lothian East Renfrewshire Edinburgh East Edinburgh North and Leith Edinburgh South West Falkirk Glasgow Central Glasgow East Glasgow North Glasgow North East Glasgow North West Glasgow South Glasgow South West Glenrothes Gordon Inverclyde Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey Kilmarnock and Loudoun Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath[n 4] Lanark and Hamilton East Linlithgow and East Falkirk Livingston Midlothian Motherwell and Wishaw Na h-Eileanan an Iar North Ayrshire and Arran Ochil and South Perthshire Paisley and Renfrewshire North Paisley and Renfrewshire South Perth and North Perthshire Rutherglen and Hamilton West Ross, Skye and Lochaber Stirling West Dunbartonshire
	Conservative	Banff and Buchan Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk Dumfries and Galloway Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale Moray West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine
	Liberal Democrats	Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross Edinburgh West North East Fife Orkney and Shetland
	Labour	Edinburgh South

Target seats

Scottish Conservatives

Rank	Constituency	Winning party 2017		Swing required	Conservatives' place 2019	Result
1	Perth and North Perthshire		SNP	0.02%	2nd		SNP
2	Lanark and Hamilton East		SNP	0.26%	2nd		SNP
3	Edinburgh South West		SNP	1.11%	2nd		SNP
4	Argyll and Bute		SNP	1.38%	2nd		SNP
5	East Lothian		Labour	3.24%	3rd		SNP
6	Linlithgow and Falkirk East		SNP	3.63%	2nd		SNP
7	Ayrshire North and Arran		SNP	3.66%	2nd		SNP
8	Edinburgh North and Leith		SNP	3.9%	3rd		SNP

Scottish Labour

Rank	Constituency	Winning party 2017		Swing required	Labour's place 2019	Result
1	Glasgow South West		SNP	0.08%	2nd		SNP
2	Glasgow East		SNP	0.10%	2nd		SNP
3	Airdrie and Shotts		SNP	0.26%	2nd		SNP
4	Lanark and Hamilton East		SNP	0.36%	3rd		SNP
5	Motherwell and Wishaw		SNP	0.38%	2nd		SNP
6	Inverclyde		SNP	0.49%	2nd		SNP
7	Dunfermline and West Fife		SNP	0.81%	2nd		SNP
8	Edinburgh North and Leith		SNP	1.44%	2nd		SNP

Scottish Liberal Democrats

Rank	Constituency	Winning party 2017		Swing Required	Liberal Democrats' place 2019	Result
1	North East Fife		SNP	<0.01%	1st		Liberal Democrats
2	Ross, Skye and Lochaber		SNP	9.67%	2nd		SNP
3	Argyll and Bute		SNP	15.04%	3rd		SNP
4	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey		SNP	18.26%	3rd		SNP

Scottish National Party

Rank	Constituency	Winning party 2017		Swing required	SNP's place 2019	Result
1	Stirling		Conservative	0.15%	1st		SNP
2	Rutherglen and Hamilton West		Labour	0.26%	1st		SNP
3	Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath		Labour	0.28%	1st		SNP
4	Glasgow North East		Labour	0.38%	1st		SNP
5	Midlothian		Labour	0.98%	1st		SNP
6	Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill		Labour	1.76%	1st		SNP
7	Gordon		Conservative	2.43%	1st		SNP
8	East Lothian		Labour	2.76%	1st		SNP
9	Edinburgh West		Liberal Democrats	2.83%	2nd		Liberal Democrats

See also

• 2019 United Kingdom general election in England
• 2019 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland
• 2019 United Kingdom general election in Wales

Footnotes

1. Includes Neale Hanvey, who was suspended from the party at the time of his election and thus took his seat as an independent.
2. Young Voter's Special with representatives from the main parties where they debated in front of an audience of voters aged under 30
3. Social polling conducted by STV News shortly after the debate
4. The seat was won by Neale Hanvey, who was suspended from the party at the time of his election and thus took his seat as an independent.