Given many of the other Holyrood regions match up poorly with local government geography, Mid Scotland and Fife is refreshingly neat. It includes all of the Fife, Stirling, Clackmannanshire, and Perth and Kinross council areas – no more, no less. The original 1999 version was slightly less neat, as it also included the inland portion of Angus including Forfar and Brechin.
Compared to the core Central Belt areas to the south, this region has always been more politically diverse. By the mid 80’s, Clackmannanshire and the south of both Fife and Stirling were pretty strongly Labour. That shouldn’t be a surprise given the many mining villages and level of industry there. The North East of Fife had gone Liberal, the general resurgence of the party likely boosted there due to the presence of St Andrews University.
The rest of Stirling and all of Perthshire, which were broadly more rural and more affluent, remained Conservative. Though the SNP didn’t hold any of the core seats here, they did have an Angus seat covering much of that inland area that was initially part of the region. They were also the strongest challengers in Perthshire and Clackmannanshire, which they had won in the 70’s.
When 1997 saw the Conservatives wiped from the constituency map in Scotland, the SNP moved to take those seats, whilst Labour relieved them of Stirling. That quite neatly carved the region into an SNP north, Labour south, and Lib Dem east.
6 Labour (all Constituency)
5 SNP (3 Regional, 2 Constituency)
3 Conservative (all Regional)
2 Liberal Democrat (1 Constituency, 1 Regional)
5 Labour (all Constituency)
5 SNP (3 Constituency, 2 Regional)
3 Conservative (all Regional)
2 Liberal Democrat (1 Constituency, 1 Regional)
1 Green (Regional)
6 SNP (5 Constituency, 1 Regional)
5 Labour (3 Regional, 2 Constituency)
3 Conservative (all Regional)
2 Liberal Democrat (all Constituency)
9 SNP (8 Constituency, 1 Regional)
4 Labour (3 Regional, 1 Constituency)
2 Conservative (all Regional)
1 Liberal Democrat (Regional)
8 SNP (all Constituency)
4 Conservative (all Regional)
2 Labour (all Regional)
1 Liberal Democrat (Constituency)
1 Green (Regional)
(Note: This section is based on the national polling averages as of the 1st of April.)
As much as the SNP may want to win North East Fife back, it’s highly unlikely they will. The Lib Dems won the corresponding UK Parliament seat in 2019, and if nothing else they have proven themselves masters at bedding back into a very small number of constituencies.
That means change, if any, may come via the list. Last time round this was the only region with an “overhang”, with the SNP winning so many constituencies they impacted the intended proportionality and deprived Labour of a seat. Based on current polling, Labour are unlikely to win enough support for a third seat this time anyway.
That same overhang meant the Greens were narrowly elected to the last regional seat last time, and the Conservatives weren’t miles ahead for their fourth seat. Either of those parties could find themselves losing out if the SNP recover enough to justify a list seat, of if the Lib Dems did somehow lose North East Fife.
Regional List Vote and MSPs Elected
#1:
Conservative - Murdo Fraser
#2:
Labour - Alex Rowley
#3:
Conservative - Liz Smith
#4:
Labour - Claire Brennan-Baker
#5:
Conservative - Dean Lockhart
#6:
Conservative - Alexander Stewart
#7:
Green - Mark Ruskell
Constituency Vote
Total MSPs Elected
8 SNP (all Constituency)
4 Conservative (all Regional)
2 Labour (all Regional)
1 Liberal Democrat (Constituency)
1 Green (Regional)
- Stefan Hoggan-Radu
- John Swinney
- Keith Brown
- Annabelle Ewing
- Jim Fairlie
- David Torrance
- Ross Cunningham
- Fiona Sarwar
- Moraig Henderson
- Lee Robb
- Rosemary Hunter
- Murdo Fraser
- Liz Smith
- Dean Lockhart
- Alexander Stewart
- Roz McCall
- Angus Forbes
- Rhona Metcalfe
- Darren Watt
- Moira Benny
- Kathleen Leslie
- David MacPhee
- Claire Baker
- Alex Rowley
- Julie MacDougall
- Craig Miller
- Chris Kane
- Ryan Smart
- Ewan Dillon
- Mark Ruskell
- Mags Hall
- Marion Robertson
- Fiona McOwan
- Scott Rutherford
- Jeroen van Leeuwen
- Elspeth MacLachlan
- Paul Vallot
- Amy Smith
- Craig McCutcheon
- Willie Rennie
- Peter Barrett
- Aude Boubaker-Calder
- Julia Brown
- Jane Liston
- Fayzan Rehman
- Aisha Mir
- Ian Mann
- John Duff
- Eva Comrie
- Neale Hanvey
- Jim Eadie
- Stephanie Reilly
- Linda Holt
- Imam Khan
- Brian Henderson
- Ian Stewart
- James Glen
- Graham Dawson
- Michael Saint
- Lisa Brackenridge
- Eren Sinclair
- Stuart Cairns
- Kathleen Elliott
- Donald Marshall
- Stephen Saunders
- Davina Saunders
- Anil Alexander
- George Carratt
- Linda Mair
- Paul Lynch
- Calum Paul
- George Morton
- Kenneth Morton
- Victoria McCann
- Otto Inglis
- Alexander Black
- Guy Addison
- Karen Morton
- Lynda Davis
- Douglas Watters
- George Cormack
- Edward McNally
- Bruce Henderson
- Stefan Diesing
- Mercy Mugure Kamanja
- Martin James Keatings