Perth and Kinross Council 2022

Perth and Kinross is what it says the tin – a merger of the historic counties of Perthshire and Kinross-shire, though Perthshire was shorn of a large chunk of its southeast when this district was created in the 1970’s. Perth, the Fair City, is the urban anchor for what is otherwise a massive rural stretch at the very centre of the country, encompassing both lowland and highland areas. Perthshire was historically such a big chunk of Scotland that it’s known as “the Big County”, contrasting with the neighbouring “Wee County” of Clackmannanshire.

In common with largely rural, farming-heavy counties across Scotland, for much of the 20^th century this area was heavily Conservative leaning. Over time they were increasingly challenged by the SNP, who held a seat here for 5 years after the October 1974 election, before they more firmly established themselves via a 1995 by-election. SNP representation has been the norm in both parliaments since, though the southern portion was part of a Labour seat at Westminster from 2005 to 2015, then in Conservative hands briefly from 2017 to 2019. The north came close to flipping in 2017 as well, having been a bawhair thin majority of 21 votes for the SNP.

Throughout the district council era, the Conservatives were the largest party, though without a majority in 1984 and 1988. The SNP won a majority at the first unitary election here, then held a plurality at the following two, when the Conservatives began to bounce back from their nadir.