Contents
Region Map
Overall Regional Result 2021
Argyll and Bute
Caithness, Sutherland and Ross
Na h-Eileanan an Iar
Inverness and Nairn
Moray
Orkney Islands
Shetland Islands
Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch
List Seat Allocation Process
Highlands and Islands List Candidates 2021
Minor Party Results
The Highlands and Islands Region is a geographic behemoth, covering around half of Scotland’s land area. It includes all of the three Islands Councils – Orkney, Shetland and Western – and Highland, plus most of Argyll and Bute (the Lomond area is missing) and Moray (missing the area around Buckie).
Despite that tremendous geographic extent, this is by far the smallest region in terms of population. That isn’t a mere reflection of rurality, but rather partly down to the infamous Highland Clearances where landlords deliberately destroyed communities which had existed for centuries, sending them to the Lowlands or overseas to make way for sheep farming. This was not without strong resistance from many of the residents, with Land Reform becoming the key political priority by the late 19th century.
That the Liberals adopted that policy as their own would gain them long-lasting support, especially amongst crofters. They would also find strong support in the Northern Isles, although the Norse-descended, Scots speaking peoples of those islands differed greatly from the Gaels of the Highlands and Western Isles. Even at their lowest ebb in the 50’s when they had just 6 MPs across the UK, one of those was Orkney and Shetland. As they began to revive in the 60’s, this was first seen in Highland seats, and by the 90’s the freshly merged Liberal Democrats had become dominant in western and northern Highlands.
At the same time, the SNP tended to be very strong in Moray. They also had enough support across the region that, during the First Past the Post era of European Elections, their solitary MEP Winnie Ewing represented the region. Labour had pockets of support in Caithness, Sutherland and Inverness, and the two parties regularly battled it out for the Western Isles. Even when various strands of Liberalism were the strongest force in the Highlands, the region was often more politically diverse than the Central Lowlands.
5 Liberal Democrat (all Constituency)
4 SNP (2 Constituency, 2 Regional)
4 Labour (3 Regional, 1 Constituency)
2 Conservative (all Regional)
5 Liberal Democrat (all Constituency)
4 SNP (2 Constituency, 2 Regional)
3 Labour (2 Regional, 1 Constituency)
2 Conservative (all Regional)
1 Green (Regional)
6 SNP (4 Constituency, 2 Regional)
4 Liberal Democrat (all Constituency)
3 Labour (all Regional)
2 Conservative (all Regional)
9 SNP (6 Constituency, 3 Regional)
2 Liberal Democrat (all Constituency)
2 Labour (all Regional)
2 Conservative (all Regional)
7 SNP (6 Constituency, 1 Regional)
3 Conservative (all Regional)
2 Liberal Democrat (all Constituency)
2 Labour (all Regional)
1 Green (Regional)
7 SNP (6 Constituency, 1 Regional)
4 Conservative (all Regional)
2 Lib Dem (all Constituency)
1 Labour (Regional)
1 Green (Regional)
Regional List Vote and MSPs Elected
#1:
Conservative - Douglas Ross
#2:
Conservative - Edward Mountain
#3:
Labour - Rhoda Grant
#4:
Conservative - Donald Cameron
#5:
Green - Ariane Burgess
#6:
Conservative - Jamie Halcro Johnston
#7:
SNP - Emma Roddick
Constituency Vote
Total MSPs Elected
7 SNP (6 Constituency, 1 Regional)
4 Conservative (all Regional)
2 Lib Dem (all Constituency)
1 Labour (Regional)
1 Green (Regional)
To allocate list seats using the D’Hondt method, each party’s share of the vote is divided by one more than the number of seats they’ve won so far in the process. This is an important part of how the list seats then more fairly represent the diversity of views amongst voters. List votes cast for a party that has won lots of constituency seats are not “wasted”, they just aren’t needed to give their voters fair representation.
When allocating the first list seat, this starts with the number of constituencies won by each party:
- The SNP won 6 constituencies, so their vote is divided by 7.
- The Lib Dems won 2 constituencies, so their vote is divided by 3.
- No one else won any constituencies, so their votes aren’t divided.
That then gives us this (removing the parties that clearly don’t have enough votes for clarity):
Since the Conservatives have the highest total here, they receive the first regional list seat. We add that to their total, giving them 1 seat overall so far, and therefore for the next round of allocation their share is divided by 2.
The Conservatives again have the highest total, so they receive the second regional list seat. That gives them 2 seats overall so far, and therefore for the next round of allocation their share is divided by 3.
Labour have the highest total, so they receive the third regional list seat. That gives them 1 seat overall so far, and therefore for the next round of allocation their share is divided by 2.
The Conservatives have the highest total, so they receive the fourth regional list seat. We add that to their total, giving them 3 seats overall so far, and therefore for the next round of allocation their share is divided by 4.
The Greens have the highest total, so they receive the fifth regional list seat. That gives them 1 seat overall so far, and therefore for the next round of allocation their share is divided by 2.
The Conservatives have the highest total, so they receive the sixth regional list seat. We add that to their total, giving them 4 seats overall so far, and therefore for the next round of allocation their share is divided by 5.
The SNP have the highest total, so they receive the seventh and final regional list seat. We add that to their total, giving them 7 seats overall. Therefore, the final distribution of seats across the Highlands & Islands region is:
7 SNP (6 Constituency, 1 Regional)
4 Conservative (all Regional)
2 Lib Dem (all Constituency)
1 Labour (Regional)
1 Green (Regional)
- Emma Roddick
- Kate Forbes
- Maree Todd
- Fergus Ewing
- Tom Wills
- Mike MacKenzie
- Robert Leslie
- Rhiannon Spear
- Jamie Szymkowiak
- Qasim Hanif
- Ken Gowans
- Sarah Fanet
- Douglas Ross
- Edward Mountain
- Donald Cameron
- Jamie Halcro Johnston
- Tim Eagle
- Ella Robertson McKay
- Struan Mackie
- Sam Brown
- Gavin Berkenheger
- Nick Tulloch
- Rhoda Grant
- John Erskine
- Marion Donaldson
- Jo Kirby
- Coilla Drake
- Lewis Whyte
- Shaun Fraser
- Ariane Burgess
- Anne Thomas
- Fabio Villani
- Steve Sankey
- Debra Nicolson
- Sand Ownsett
- Topher Dawson
- Lisa Jane Mead
- Chris Ballance
- Isabella Sumsion
- Phyl Meyer
- Luna Martin
- Alan Reid
- Molly Nolan
- Denis Rixson
- William Sinclair
- Sheila Ritchie
- David Gregg
- Neil Mitchison
- Kirk Torrance
- Craig Berry
- Josh Robertson
- Judith Reid
- Moira Ramage
- Patricia Watson
- Robbie Munro
- Donald Boyd
- Paul Burrows
- Alastair Kennedy
- Paul Bradburn
- Sandra Skinner
- Les Durance
- Kate Brownlie
- Catherine Mount
- Robert Stephenson
- Robert Scorer
- Michael Burger de Frémol
- Duncan Geddes
- Alan Breeze
- Bryan Foster
- Jack Malcolm
- Tina McCaffery
- Emma Idzidowska
- Phil Breed
- Gary Cheesman
- Anne McCloskey
- Brian Nugent
- Andrew Macdonald
- Michael Willis
- Phillipp Tanzer
- Shena McLelland
- Sophie Hendry
- Dolores Hughes
- Harry Christian
- Calum Liptrot
- Sean Robertson
- Yolanda Piotrowicz
- Luke Ivory
- Hazel Mansfield
- Andy Wightman