Current Situation
Scotland elects 59 of the 650 seats in the UK parliament at Westminster. The most recent election to the UK parliament took place on the 12th of December 2019. The Conservatives were the largest party across the UK as a whole, forming a majority government. The current distribution of the Scottish seats is:
The vacancy was caused by Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) had the SNP whip withdrawn following a breach of COVID rules serious enough to be taken to court. She was removed by Scotland’s first recall petition, and a by-election will be held in due course.
The Independent MP is Angus MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar). First elected in 2005, he had the SNP whip removed for a week in early July 2023, and after refusing to re-take it was expelled in August 2023.
Both Alba MPs were originally elected as SNP – Kenny MacAskill (East Lothian) and Neale Hanvey (Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath).
Past Results
The following chart shows the seats won at each Westminster election since I was born (as an arbitrary start point) – it does not account for any changes that took place in the middle of a term. Parties are displayed in their current seat order. Note that the number of Scottish MPs was set at 59 starting from the 2005 election, having previously been 72.
Electoral System
Elections to the UK Parliament are conducted via the non-proportional First Past the Post (FPTP). Most voters will be familiar with how FPTP works. Scotland is divided into 59 constituencies each containing a roughly equal number of voters. Voters cast their ballot for a single candidate, and the candidate that wins the most votes wins the single seat available.
Boundaries
The current boundaries for the Scottish constituencies in the UK Parliament are shown below. Detailed constituency maps are available here.
These boundaries have been in place since 2005, as all attempts to re-drawn UK Parliament constituencies since 2010 have failed. In theory, yet another Boundary Review should report before the next UK General Election and finally update these boundaries.